Class of 2016
Kevin Livesey

Biography

Mr. Livesey arrived in Hong Kong in 1980, and held the positions of Senior Head Coach of the Jubilee Sports Center (predecessor of the Hong Kong Sports Institute) and National Coach of the Hong Kong Tennis Association until 1993.

From 1982 to 1991, he was both the captain and coach of the Hong Kong Davis Cup team. He led Hong Kong
to its first ever Davis Cup tie victory against Chinese Taipei in 1984. Mr. Livesey was also the captain and
coach of the Fed Cup team when Hong Kong first entered the competition in 1981 and held those positions until 1993. Under his captaincy in 1987, the Fed Cup team achieved its most notable result when Hong Kong defeated Finland, Belgium, Brazil and Sweden before losing to the Netherlands in the World Group consolation round final.

In 1981, with Mr. Livesey at the helm, the Hong Kong under-18 boys’ team travelled to Kuala Lumpur and finished runner-up in the Head Cup, a competition that featured all the elite juniors in Southeast Asia. Mr. Livesey also led the World Youth Cup (predecessor of Junior Fed Cup) girls’ team to sixth place at the 1985 World Finals, which remains Hong Kong’s best result in a junior team event.

Mr. Livesey was responsible for reintroducing the women’s tour to Hong Kong in 1993 with the WTA Digital Open. He set up the HKTA Coaching Award Scheme to encourage more players to become tennis coaches and launched the coaching certification courses at all levels in 1985. He was also responsible for introducing mini tennis to the tennis development model in 1986, which allowed kids to play the sports with a lot of fun at a very young age. He trained many of Hong Kong’s top juniors, who all went on to compete at high-level international competitions. They include Kelvin Inge, Mark Bailey, Paul Bailey, Colin Grant, Pang Lui, Rolf Harrison, Patricia Hy, Paulette Moreno, and Willy Chan.

Mr. Livesey also owned and managed WTA and ATP tournaments in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia. He was a Member of the WTA Tour Board of Directors from 2006 to 2011 and a Member of the WTA Tour Tournament Council from 2000 to 2012, representing the Asia Pacific Region.