Since its establishment in 1988, the Hong Kong Tennis Foundation had funded or partially funded numerous programmes organized by the HKTA. Besides promoting initiatives in schools or at the grassroots level, funding from HKTF was also instrumental in providing competitive opportunities for some of the territory's leading juniors in their overseas sojourns.

Over the years, programmes that have benefitted from HKTF funding ranged from Mini Tennis Promotions and School Training Programmes to Summer Tours, local tournaments, and financing young professionals to overseas tournaments.

Match-play experience gained from competing against players from around the world is crucial to a player's development and it will most certainly come in handy when representing Hong Kong in major events such as the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Asian Games and hopefully, one day, the Olympics.

One of the most important components of a junior player's education is to be able to play in tournaments. Once a player reaches a good standard, it is essential that he or she can compete in as many matches against as many different opponents with varying standards as possible.

To achieve this, overseas tours are organized by the HKTA each year. As the costs of sending a team of juniors and a travelling coach overseas can be quite high, the Hong Kong Tennis Foundation had in the past twenty years helped with the finances of these trips.

The first of these trips was in 1990 when a team of two boys and two girls accompanied by a coach went to participate in the 18U ITF Junior Ranking tournaments in the Philippines and Thailand. This resulted in three of the players – Sven Koehler, Pang Sheung, and Willy Chan – gaining their first ITF Junior World Ranking points.

Sven Koehler was to peak at No. 14 in the world in 1992. He managed to reach the last sixteen in singles and quarterfinals in doubles at Junior Wimbledon in 1992 and 1993 respectively. In 1993, he was also a singles and doubles finalist at the Asian Closed Junior Championships, in addition to winning the Grade 1 Japan Open Junior Championships' doubles title where he teamed up with Steven Downs of New Zealand to beat Mark Philippoussis and Jay Salter in the final, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6.

All three players went on to become representatives for the territory either in the Davis Cup or the Fed Cup.

In 1991, the Foundation funded three trips to the Prince Asia Challenge 16U and 14U events in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Brunei (the fourth leg was played in Hong Kong). At the end of the 4-tournament circuit, four boys and three girls from Hong Kong qualified to participate in the Grand Masters in Bangkok. Both Jacklyn Fu and Alex Lui made it to the finals, a great result to say the least.

Also in 1991, a trip for juniors aged 11-15 was organized to England. John Hui and Jason Sankey were members of this trip and both players went on to become the number one ranked junior in Hong Kong, as well as representing the territory in the Davis Cup and other top level events.

John Hui was to reach a career-best ITF Junior World Ranking of No. 37 in singles and No. 20 in doubles. He teamed up with Japan's Yaoki Ishii to beat top-seeded Yohny Romero and Kepler Orellano of Venezuela en route to reaching the quarterfinals of the 1995 US Open Junior Championships. The following year, he also collaborated with Thailand's Chai Navawongse to capture the doubles title at the Asian Closed Junior Championships.

As a standout collegiate player at Pepperdine University where he reached a ranking high of No. 8 in doubles, John and his teammate Kelly Gullet came from a set down to beat James Blake and Kunj Majmudar (Harvard), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the last sixteen of the 1999 NCAA Championships to garner All-America honours, a result that also made him the first player from Hong Kong (men's) to achieve such a feat.

John then went on to become a full-time touring professional and attained a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 157 (12 Aug 2002). In 2001, he also teamed up with Melvin Tong to claim a bronze medal at the 9th All China Games, in addition to producing a runner-up finish at the Asian Championships.

Over the next eighteen years, the Foundation has funded trips for the best juniors of different ages to Europe, USA, and Australia. The latest was in 2008 when two trips were sponsored – one was for a group of talented youngsters to travel to Australia to train as well as compete in tournaments. It was a great experience for the juniors as the trip also included home stays, which meant they also got to experience the social experience of living with their local family hosts Down Under.

The other trip funded in 2008 was for Jessica Yang Zj-Jun to compete at the Roland Garros Junior Championships and The Junior Championships, Wimbledon. Jessica reached a career-best ITF Junior World Ranking of No. 22 in July before her focus was switched over to women's events on the pro circuit.

These overseas tours have been invaluable in helping all of Hong Kong's best juniors of the past two decades, and it is thanks to the Foundation that these players have gone on to give good performances in both representative team events, not to mention both international and local tournaments.

Other top players that have benefitted from the support to these overseas tours include Tong Ka Po, Lam Po Kuen, Venise Chan, Cindy Hah, Melvin Tong, Wayne Wong, Yu Hiu Tung, Jack Hui, Brian Hung, Martin Sayer, Michael Lai, Ronald Chow, and Gilbert Wong.

The Foundation is proud to have played a part in the development of these players and will continue to support of emerging players with potential in the hope that one day a Hong Kong representative can medal at major events such as the Asian Games or the Olympics.

Patron of the HKTF, Michael Chang, sends his congratulatory message:

"Know that I am with you in spirit celebrating all that HKTF has done for Hong Kong tennis, especially in teaching its youth and introducing them to the game. My hope is that tennis will only continue to grow and that one day, with the efforts of such important organizations like the Tennis Foundation, Hong Kong will celebrate its very own champions on both the WTA and ATP Tours! How exciting that would be!"