Tseng making a big sound

Chun-hsin Tseng is a bundle of energy on the court. Fleet-footed, assured footwork and capable of changing direction quickly.

He will need to.

The Chinese Taipei star, at 5’9”, is part of a sport that is increasingly all about tall, gifted athletes with big serves and powerful baseline game.

Patrick Mouratoglou, who coaches Serena Williams, has openly marvelled at his work ethic and tenacity. Tseng trained at his academy in France.

In a way, it’s easy to understand where he gets it from. Tseng’s parents ran a traditional food stall in the night market in Chinese Taipei. The strain of making the traditional cuisine - tanghulu - has affected his mother’s wrist so much so that the stall has now been closed as she can no longer run it herself as his father and coach, Yu Te Tseng, travels with him on the Tour.

“My wife has an injury in her hands (wrist),” says Yu in broken English. “She hurt herself because she has to lift (mimes the stove or wok) and mix (mimes flavouring with the other hand). For her, it’s tough.”

“We last went home in October and we’ve no plans to go back. Last year we went twice for a total of two months including quarantine,” he says.

“You have a two-week quarantine on entering. If we go then we have to work 3-4 weeks just to come back. So we cannot go back. My wife is there with my younger boy.”

The family’s sacrifices are made with their hopes pinned on Tseng. The 20-year-old is unperturbed by the pressure.

He’s confident.

It was his performances in national tournaments that made the newspaper which prompted the Taiwan tennis federation to step in to provide financial aid as his family struggled with the economics of tennis.

There was an invitational training visit to South Korea before he moved to the US to pursue his sporting dreams before he was even a teenager.

In 2018, Tseng reached the final of Australian Open junior, won the French Open and Wimbledon junior titles and finished as junior world number 1.

Moving into the pro tour was the logical step but it happened at the worst of times. Turning pro in 2019, his career has been stop-start with Covid-19 enforced breaks, travel restrictions and the steep learning curve.

“When Covid struck, I stopped playing for half a year,” says Tseng.

“I could not play well, no rhythm. At that time I was quite slow. I lost matches, which I could have won. After that, I started to be aggressive and faster, learning what I should do to win. It’s getting better.”

In 2021, he made two quarterfinals, two semifinals and two finals in the Challenger Tour, clinching his first Challenger title in the second final in Maia, Portugal in December. His ranking rose from 280 to 190 and will rise further following his 6-1, 6-4 defeat of fourth seed Hugo Grenier in the pre-quarters at the Bengaluru Open Challenger on Wednesday.

“This year, I want to break into the top 100 and keep improving on my serve,” he says. “I want to be in the top ten in the world.”

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