Key takeaways:

1. Successful hosting of high-profile ATP and Davis Cup events, cementing Hong Kong’s status as a global tennis hub.
2. Organisational enhancements including new leadership roles, HR reviews, and strengthened governance policies.
3. Refined player development initiatives, involving PDC restructuring, expert workshops, and increased training focus.
4. Expanded regional and international collaborations to enhance player development, including provincial/city partnerships in China and Europe.
5. Pickleball growth plans, including international event hosting, along with improved community engagement.

Dear Hong Kong Tennis Family

After I took office on December 15, 2023, a couple of big wins at Victoria Park ushered in the New Year, with world No. 5 Andrey Rublev winning the ATP 250 Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open 2024 in January and our Davis Cup team beating Zimbabwe to retain its World Group II status the following month. 

By every quantifiable measure, the ATP 250 was a resounding success and Hong Kong once again showcased its beauty and dynamism as a city to a global audience.  It was also the first time since 2002 that a Tour event was held in Hong Kong. The report from the ATP was very encouraging, informing us we have exceeded the projected KPIs and a sold-out event generating solid traction in press coverage both locally and internationally. 

Hong Kong also has the distinction of being only one of three cities in Asia aside from Beijing and Tokyo to showcase both an ATP and WTA Tour event on their tennis calendar.  This year, we have also added a WTA 125 (30 September to 6 October), ahead of a WTA 250 event (26 October to 3 November). The Hong Kong Tennis Series is inspiring and motivating because for a kid to have the opportunity to experience world-class events up close and personal, tennis becomes more attainable and less distant. With Zheng Qinwen’s historic gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, our youngsters now have an even more relatable role model that is closer to home to emulate and draw inspiration from.

These “M” Mark events not only boost Hong Kong’s image as Asia’s sports events capital, they help instill a sustainable sporting culture, foster a sense of pride and social cohesion, while bringing tangible economic benefits to our community.  In terms of the development of tennis in Hong Kong, these world-class events are an invaluable source of inspiration for our budding local talents and play a major role in helping us popularise the sport.  Our improved capacities in terms of hosting mega events, leadership and specialized staff, strategic planning, international and domestic network, and global standards can only bode well for the future.

Behind the scenes, HKCTA was hard at work implementing a number of organisation-wide changes to improve efficiency and accountability and introducing benchmarking as a tool to help us raise the overall standard of our deliverables.

Organisational Health

Two new appointments, with more clearly defined roles for senior management, are in place.  Calvin Lai is the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel overseeing governance, HR, communication, CSR, charitable foundation, and Pickleball.  Peter Johnston is Director of International Events and he brings in a wealth of experience being the Assistant Tournament Director of the Australian Open and with managing a number of ATP and WTA events especially in the Asia/Pacific region.  Chris Lai remains the CEO with more time devoted to strategic developments and financial management. 

An HR Consultant Review, encompassing an assessment on staff performance and an online survey for staff suggestions and feedback, is set to go underway.  Regular town hall meetings are set up to facilitate a better understanding of the progression of HKCTA and improved communication between staff members.

In addition, renowned Peak Performance Specialist and Sports Psychologist, Dr. Ann Quinn, is the executive coach for staff and mental coach for players. Aside from elite athletes, she has helped people from businesses and sports organisations from all walks of life to build a winning mindset and excel in their chosen fields.  We can benefit on an organisational-wide basis from her expertise.

Governance Upgrade

We strengthened our governance to generate a stronger and positive impact on Hong Kong’s long-term tennis development. While the Government provides guidance on the principles and standards of good governance and internal control, it is the NSA’s responsibility to adopt the best practices to suit its organisational structure, resource capability, and operational needs.  To reflect better transparency, impartiality, and fair treatment, the mechanisms and criteria, as well as appeal procedures, pertaining to the Code of Conduct, Complaint Handling and Selection Procedures were addressed.

HKCTA has revised its code of conduct to address governance matters such as anti-bribery, conflict of interest management, anti-harassment, child abuse policy, sexual-harassment policy, social media usage etc.  In addition, HKCTA has streamlined its existing Complaint Handling mechanisms to consolidate them into one set of rules applicable to all employees, officers, consultants, agents, and independent contractors, including part-time coaches, hitters, and officials. Furthermore, HKCTA has rolled out its new selection and appeal procedures for selection of players and other roles to support HKCTA’s player development effort.

Player Development

The Player Development Committee (PDC) is suspended temporarily to undertake a structural appraisal. PDC under a reformatted construct resumed normal course of business in July. A number of functional enhancements are ready by the start of the new school year in September. Player development has been a very busy department to date and I expect there will be continuous enhancements while the search of the new head coach is ongoing and we are also planning for the transition from Tier A to Tier B Sports under the HKSAR Government’s Elite Vote Support Scheme (EVSS).

I will touch on a few PDC themes below.

Team building

In May, our Hong Kong under-16 boys’ team of Jack Cheng, Nicholas Cheng, Walter Tam, and Jose Blasi (Captain) led Hong Kong to 3rd place at this year’s Davis Cup Juniors Asia/Oceania Qualifying in Shymkent.  Hong Kong is returning to the World Finals for the first time since 2019. 

In July, the Hong Kong women’s team, captained by Zhang Ling, beat Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Singapore to cement promotion to Asia/Oceania Group I in the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time since 2017.  Two up-and-coming juniors were invited to train, travel, and shadow the team to Kuala Lumpur.  We are trying to build a team concept and show that representing Hong Kong in the Billie Jean King Cup is of the highest level.  BJKC representatives are to receive all the support we can provide, from coaching to hitting partners, physiotherapy, and all our staff members.  It is privilege to play BJKC and our hope is that these young players can embrace its culture, significance, and perform to the best of their abilities.  In turn, we expect them to carry such ideals, convey that sentiment to the wider community, and inspire the next generation of players.

The prospect is to instill a winning mentality, a team spirit, and a belief that Hong Kong has the ability to compete with the best of them. Winning is contagious and it can create a mentality that gives credence and precedence to a path on which others can emulate and follow.

International Experts

We invited a number of International Experts to Hong Kong to conduct workshops for our coaches, NTS players, and knowledge sharing/Q & A sessions with parents and stakeholders:

• Rendy Lu: Five-time Olympian, former Asian No. 1 and ATP No. 33, who now operates his own tennis academy in Taiwan.  He is also part of the coaching team of current Chinese No. 1 Zhang Zhizhen
• Romain Deffet: Renowned physical coach who worked with Li Na during the final stretch of her career when she posted some of her best results on tour, which included an Australian Open title and the No. 2 ranking in the world. 
• Carlos Rodriguez: Coach of Justine Henin whose long-time collaboration brought her seven Grand Slam titles, an Olympic gold medal, and the year-end world No. 1 ranking three times. He was Li Na’s coach when she won the Australian Open title and reached No. 2 in the world rankings.
• Peak Performance Specialist Dr. Ann Quinn, whose clients included Wimbledon 1987 champion, Pat Cash; Two-time US Open champion and former world No. 1, Pat Rafter; and 10-time ITF Wheelchair Tennis World Champion, Shingo Kunieda, came to speak to our players, coaches, and admin staff and hosted a talk on ‘Tips For Being a Great Tennis Parent’.

These Speaker Series/Workshops are a sustained effort to tap into the knowledge base of international experts whose proven benchmark of excellence can help HKCTA target KPIs that will raise the standard and quality of our training programmes.

Changes – Match Play and Fitness

Setting a target of 80-100 matches a year, we started organising match-play on the weekends to give NTS players the opportunity to compete against their peers from other regional centres in order to accumulate the experience of facing opponents outside of their normal confines.

We want to build a physical training programme that is going to make our players one of the fittest, helps with injury prevention, gives us a competitive advantage. Fitness is to become a key part of a player’s training under HKCTA programmes so that they are more equipped physically to compete at the highest levels.  We will invest more resources into the fitness department to enhance our programme.

Regional Training Collaborations – Shandong and Tianjin

During the first six months we signed strategic cooperation between the HKCTA and the Shandong Small Ball Sports Federation (SSBSF) and with Tianjin Tennis Association respectively.  The premise of the cooperation is to use tennis as a platform to strengthen the relationship between the tennis strong provinces and Hong Kong in the form of cross training, training tournaments, and technical exchange to promote the overall development of the sport.

The idea is to set up training bases around the world so our players can utilise them as stopovers in between tournaments.  We want to establish connections with these bases where their proximity to the tour events can provide players with easy access for training and recovery. We are in talks with more tennis academies in Europe, Asia and other provinces/cities in China.

Pickleball Update

HKCTA is now a fully affiliated member of the Global Pickleball Federation (GPF) and also recognised as the only National Governing Body in Hong Kong by the International Pickleball Federation (IPF). Our affiliation with GPF and IPF is an official confirmation of HKCTA being recognized as the governing body of Pickleball in Hong Kong in charge of developing, growing, regulating rules and best practices of the said sport.  Moreover, HKCTA is also recognized as a member of the Asian Pickleball Federation (APF). This recognition from APF is representative of our position as the legitimate regulatory body within the Asian pickleball community.

We have been actively working towards the development and inclusion of pickleball in Hong Kong and has been organizing local tournaments, local inter club league and international tournament in 2023 involving participants from more than 12 countries. HKCTA will start profiling Pickleball at our “M” Marked ATP 250 and WTA 250 events. 

In June, the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association (HKCTA) and the HKCTA Pickleball Association co-hosted the first-ever Pickleball PPR Level 1 Certification Workshop in Hong Kong. Led by Professional Tennis Registry’s (PTR) International Director Iñaki Balzola, who has taught over 600 certification courses in more than 100 countries.

Improving Communication

Part of my role is to understand the issues being brought up by the tennis community and I have been meeting players, parents, coaches, and clubs as much as I can, and I will continue to do so. That is, reaching out and listening to our tennis community. I believe that the tennis community as a whole is thriving, but factions remains somewhat fragmented, and we can do a much better job of achieving the kind of unity I envision.   We started having more regular parents’ meetings to convey a better understanding of what the HKCTA is doing and how we go about reaching those targets.  We tended to have fallen short in the past when it came to communication and therefore, I will use the following platforms to share thought leadership content to add more context to some of the more pertinent information we disseminate digitally. 

• Michael Cheng, President of HKCTA on LinkedIn

• Michael Cheng (@michaelhkcta) on X

Michael Cheng, President
Hong Kong, China Tennis Association