"It is a great honor to win an All-American knowing that the last player from Hong Kong to do it was John [Hui]," said Brian. "Getting the All-American was definitely one of my goals for the past 2 years and this was extra special as I just missed out last year. I tried to work even harder this year during the season to hopefully reach this goal."

"It has also been a great privilege that I got to play with Matko Maravic, who is not only a great player but a friend, and I'm very happy to be named All-American with him."

In addition, Brian was the first player from Michigan to receive the ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship (Midwest Region) and was named ITA Scholar-Athlete for the third successive year. His was also co-Captain of the Men's Tennis Team during his final two years at Michigan.

An exemplary four-year stint in Ann Arbor saw Brian reach the men's doubles final at the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships, two semifinal appearances at the ITA National Indoors, and the singles final of the 2004 Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional Championships.

"His selection to play singles at the NCAAs this year was really well-deserved. Since the first time I saw him play, before I was even coaching here, I knew he had the ability to be one of the elite players in the country. He's a fantastic athlete and a good competitor and he's very disciplined. I think the key thing for him this year was that he really started to believe in himself," enthused Michigan Head Coach, Bruce Bergue.

Earlier this year, Brian reached a career-high No. 39 in singles, which surpassed Wayne Wong's (Berkeley) previous best of No. 41 from three years ago. Unless records suggest otherwise, the highest NCAA men's singles ranking to date by a player from Hong Kong would be Martin Sayer's (Radford) No. 17 that was, let's not forget, achieved in his freshman year at the end of the 2005-06 season.

On the other hand, Brian's career-best doubles ranking of No. 2 did eclipse John Hui's previous high of No. 8 established during the 1999 season, and is thus now the new benchmark for future generations of HK players competing in US collegiate tennis. In other words, the target will remain at No. 2 until someone from here can reach the top spot, an inference that is still not easy to conceptualize.

Having said that, the last player from the territory to have earned All-American honours was of course former full-time touring pro and ATP doubles No. 157, John Hui, who could not have found a more hazardous path at the '99 NCAA Championships when he needed to come from a set down to beat '98 All-American champions, James Blake and Kunj Majmudar (Harvard), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, before reaching the quarterfinals.

As if to accentuate the significance of his win against Blake, who was Player of the Year, John ended up at No. 11 in the final rankings that year – a lofty position for most – but would have still fallen agonizingly short of an All-American. For according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, the criteria for earning such an accolade are as follows:

1.) Top eight seed in NCAA Doubles Championships, or
2.) Reach quarterfinals of NCAA Doubles Championships, or
3.) Finish in Top 10 of final Fila Collegiate Rankings

In essence, the circumstances for both John Hui and Brian Hung were that they were ominously close to being left out of the loop, as they were down in the trenches with their last viable option and had absolutely no back-up in sight.

And as Coach Bruce Bergue said earlier, there is no tournament in collegiate tennis that is tougher than the NCAAs because only the cream of the crop gets to play and most are equally matched on any given day. What stood out were the electric atmosphere and the competitors' intensity level when it gets to the Big Show because it is precisely here where not only names have been made in the past, but also reputations lost.

After Brian and his teammate, Matko Maravic, were eliminated in the opening round by Tennessee's 29th-ranked Adam Hubble and Ben Rogers, 7-6(2), 6-2, in Athens, Georgia, Michigan Head Coach Bruce Berque reflected: "This tournament is the toughest in college tennis. You have to play at your highest level. And even then, sometimes that's still not good enough."

He added, "That's the last match Brian and Matko will play together, but I know that the body of work they've put together throughout the last few years was probably some of the best doubles that the Michigan program has ever seen. I'm sure that anyone who has seen them play together is going to miss it. I'm definitely appreciative of the way they competed and the accolades they brought to our program. What they have accomplished in the past dwarfs the fact that they couldn't get it done here today. They've been a fantastic doubles team for Michigan."

Besides John Hui and Brian Hung, the only other player from the territory to have garnered a Div I All-American was none other than Patricia Hy (UCLA), who did it back in 1986. The former HK Fed Cupper was already seeded sixth at the 1984 ITA National Indoors but was stopped in the quarterfinals by fellow Bruin and top Australian junior, Elizabeth Minter, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

In 1983, Pat Hy had already been a girls' singles runner-up at Wimbledon where she lost to French world No. 1, Pacsale Paradis, while teaming up with Patty Fendick to capture girls' doubles at SW19. That year, Paradis had just won Roland Garros before adding the Jr Wimbledon crown to her name. She then reached the girl's final at Flushing Meadows in the summer before finishing the year as junior world champion.

According to ITF's Baseline, other juniors from Hong Kong who also competed at SW19 in 1983 were Paul Bailey and Paulette Moreno.

Tennis aside though, a three-time ITA Scholar-Athlete, Brian managed to graduate from the University of Michigan's Stephen M Ross School of Business with an honours degree in Business Administration last month. The requirement for attaining BBA honours at Michigan is equivalent to having to maintain a GPA of 3.5 or better for the final two years of study.

More importantly, depending on one's conception, juggling what are essentially two full-time jobs simultaneously may not be as plain sailing as it looks. And it definitely warrants assigning a level of difficulty above that of simply "playing tennis and going to school", especially when considering what Brian has achieved both on and off the court.

Since donning the Hong Kong shirt in international events in his early teens, he has been an integral part in a number of subsequent contingents that competed in major games and competitions such as the World Youth Cup (now Junior Davis Cup), World University Games, All China Games, Asian Games, as well as the Davis Cup.

In short, he has been a worthy representative of Hong Kong.

Related Info:

HK Representatives to have played NCAA Div I Men's Tennis:

    Year                      Player              
1981-1984    Mark Bailey (Kentucky)
1986-1989    Rolf Harrison (Princeton)
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)

HK Representatives to have played NCAA Div I Women's Tennis:

     Year                  Player          
1984-1987    Patricia Hy (UCLA)
1997-2000    Jackie Fu (Yale) *

* Captain of Yale (1999-2000)



Final FILA Collegiate Tennis Rankings (1 Jun 2007)

2007 ITA All-America Teams

See Brian Hung's Bio & List of Awards at www.mgoblue.com.

See Brian Hung's Player Profile.

Related Stories:

Washington Inducted Into ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame (MGoblue.com, 23 May 2007)

A Long Way From Durkeeville to Wimbledon (bigten.sctv.com, 23 Feb 2007)

Photos and Bruce Bergue quotes courtesy of mgoblue.com