After leading College of the Desert to consecutive State Championships, Jack Hui was offered a tennis scholarship to attend UC Santa Barbara last Fall. This wasn't something he had planned for, but he has since found solace in the fact he would accomplish a feat matched by only a select few from Hong Kong.
Beginning with Mark Bailey in 1981 down to Brian Hung who just graduated this summer - over a span of 26 years - there were just eight representatives from the territory to have starred and graduated from the same Division 1 school in US Collegiate tennis.¹
Yet the journey he took in order to get there can easily be construed as an epic itself.
When Jack gave up formal schooling at DBS to become a full-time tennis player with the Sports Institute in 2001, his goal had always been professional tennis. However, his promising junior career had been disrupted cruelly on more than one occasion. In fact, whenever he got back up, it seemed that something from somewhere would inadvertently try to bring him down again.
His career as a full-time tennis player may have ended long ago if not for his headstrong determination to rebound from adversity. To say that he was somewhat unlucky prior to landing on US soil three years ago would be an understatement.
The tennis gods have not been kind to him.
It was during the 2001 NEC World Youth Cup Asia/Oceania Qualifying in Jakarta that the symptoms of an originally thought "mysterious" ailment first surfaced. During the final match in the round robins against No. 7 seed Japan, Jack was confronted with breathing difficulties under extreme heat which was, in hindsight, due to palpitation and tightness of the chest.
However, there was no way the trainer could have made such a diagnosis and could only suggest stoppage as the best option for the player. Already trailing 0-1, to concede here would kill off any hopes of advancing to the knockout stage.
Jack knew this more than anyone else.
The team captain was all but ready to make the go-ahead call when he pleaded, practically begged to be sent back out on court. Although it didn't seem likely he was going to take no for an answer, it was still somewhat of a risky call to make.
In the end, his conviction proved persuasive.
Jack returned to court with the score tied at 5-5 in the first set (he had led 5-0 at one stage). He threw down two thumping aces to hold serve. Then he broke a stunned Kenichiro Nakahara for a 7-5 first set before getting his wind back to secure the second, 6-4. In the decisive doubles, he teamed up with Brian Hung to come from a set down to win, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, which ultimately propelled them all the way to the final against Australia.
In doing so, they became the first team from Hong Kong to qualify for the World Youth Cup Finals since the event's inception in 1985 – an accomplishment that is still unmatched today.
The ensuing World Finals in Santiago, which was contested on clay courts, saw Hong Kong being drawn in Group Three where third-seeded Spain and No. 6 Argentina proved too strong in the opening two round robin matches.
Against Brazil in the final group match, Brian took opposing number two, Leonardo Kirche, to a third set before going down, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Jack then lost the opening set against Lenoir Ramos at the one spot before producing a stirring, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, comeback win to send the match to a deciding doubles. The HK duo then teamed up to beat Kirche and Bruno Rosa, 6-4, 7-6(5), to secure the territory a spot in the 9th – 12th Place Playoffs at the expense of the Brazilians.
Kirche and Rosa were to reach the Top-10 in singles on the ITF World Junior Circuit not long after the following year.
Hong Kong then beat Egypt 2-1 before falling to Korea in the 9th - 10th place playoff, thus laying claim to a Top-10 finish amongst the world's best at that age group.
Upon returning to Hong Kong, the breathing complications that Jack had turned out to be supraventricular tachycardia (excessive rapidity in the action of the heart) that required laser surgery. Although this episode only set him back several months, a year later he was to go under the knife again – this time, a career-threatening arthroscopic surgery on his playing shoulder that all but wiped out his final year on the world junior circuit.
He was sidelined from December 2002 up until the following September.
Worse still, Jack was actually beginning to find some very solid form in the two months leading up to surgery. First, at the Salem Open in September, he was the only local player to advance past the opening round of the singles qualies when he sent 9-time Grand Slam doubles winner and former NCAA singles and doubles No. 1, Rick Leach, packing in the first round, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, with a relentless onslaught of backhand passes and shoelace returns.
The following month, he bagged the boys' doubles title at the then Grade 2 HK Open Jr Championships together with Brian Hung. The duo came from match point down in the third set tiebreak to defeat No. 8 seeds Adrian Szatmary of Hungary and Miles Kasiri of Britain 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(6) in the semis, and then came from a set down again to beat sixth-seeded Pablo Figueroa of Sweden and GD Jones of New Zealand in the final, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Sadly, Jack did not see much action until he got to play a handful more tournaments towards the end of 2003, a year that had promised so much yet delivered so little. His final match as a junior came at the 2003 Asian Closed Championships in New Delhi where he teamed up with Martin Sayer to reach the boys' doubles semifinals before losing to eventual champions Karan Rastogi and Somdev Dev Varman.
But that's old news.
As a freshman at College of the Desert (COD), he went 32-2 overall, in addition to being named his school's MVP and voted Foothill Schools Conference Player of the Year. The following season, he won the Southern Cal Regional as well as the State singles titles, and led the team to a second straight State Championship. He finished the 2005-06 season as the No. 1 ranked singles and No. 2 ranked doubles player in the State. He was also named California CC All-American for singles in his freshman year, and both singles and doubles in his final year.
His travails at COD paid off, as his results were good enough to earn him offers from several Division 1 schools. Although his first season at UC Santa Barbara was not as productive as envisaged, as he was slowed down by a wrist injury towards the latter half of the season, Jack did end up winning the match-clinching point in UCSB's 4-3 victory over UC Irvine in the semifinals of the Big West Conference Championship.
UCSB went on to win the conference title when they beat Cal Poly 4-2 in the final.
However, he could not have gotten to COD in the first place if not for the help of former touring pro and HK Davis Cupper, John Hui, who also attended junior college himself before moving on to Pepperdine.
"Well, basically I went that route because previously, NCAA did not allow students who attended home-study programs to play as a freshman. So I had to either sit out for 1 year at a four-year college, or attend a junior college and get an AA degree before transferring," reminisced John, who peaked at No. 157 in the world in men's doubles in 2002.
"Luckily my dad was quite knowledgeable about tennis and knew that Brad Gilbert and many other famous pros attended Foothill College because of its strong tennis program and also because their coach was very respected in the tennis circle. When Brad attended Foothill, they beat Stanford in a dual match," he recalled.
Hence it was recommended to Jack that if playing Division 1 tennis was a viable option, going through the JC route could be a valuable alternative. As things unfolded, John made a call or two, and the rest as they say, was history.
"I really can't thank John enough for showing me the way and helping me get to COD. If it wasn't for him, I would never have had the chance to play Division 1 tennis or getting a college degree through an athletic scholarship. Even though I won't graduate until next year, this has already opened up a lot of doors for me, opportunities that wouldn't have been available to me otherwise. He certainly wasn't under any obligation to do any of this. And for that, I am forever indebted to him," Jack stated as a matter of factly.
Without dreams, some might say, life would become dull and dry. Monotonously devoid of hopes and aspirations, even. Yet so often in life, dreams and reality are like fire and water – one extinguishes the other. Sometimes, however, with a little help from your friends, there is light at the other end after all.
For Jack, the tennis gods are finally coming around.
¹ Related Info:
HK Davis Cup starters to have earned athletic scholarships in NCAA Div I Men's Tennis:
Year Player
1981-1984 Mark Bailey (Kentucky)
1994-1997 Sven Koehler (Duke)
1998-2000 John Hui (Pepperdine)
2001-2004 Wayne Wong (Berkeley)
2004-2007 Brian Hung (Michigan) *
2005- Martin Sayer (Radford)
2006- Jack Hui (Santa Barbara)
* Captain of Michigan (2005-07)
HK Fed Cup starters to have earned athletic scholarships in NCAA Div I Women's Tennis:
Year Player
1984-1987 Patricia Hy (UCLA)
Others from Hong Kong currently playing collegiate tennis also include Ronald Chow (Azusa Pacific), Josh Finkelstein (Santa Barbara), and Khalif Gafoor (Alliant International)
Related Stories:
UCSB Prevails Against UC Irvine in 4-3 Thriller (ucsbgauchos.cstv.com, 28 Apr 2007)
Marty Davis Announces Signing of JuCo Transfer Jack Hui to Letter of Intent (ucsbgauchos.cstv.com, 26 Jun 2006)
Teenager Hui dumps multiple Grand Slam winner out of Salem (21 Sep 2002)
Foothill racks up state tennis crown (Los Altos Town Crier, 19 May 1997)