Profile | Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong has yet another chance for a ‘first’ at National Games
The city’s great medal hope has made several breakthroughs this year, but two more would cap off the year nicely
Coleman Wong Chak-lam has had a year of firsts. In 2025, he became the first Hongkonger to win an ATP Masters 1000 match and the first to reach the third round of a grand slam.
And at this year’s National Games, he has a serious chance of winning a medal, as mainland China’s best players have had an up-and-down season, with many suffering from recurring injuries that have stuttered their progression and knocked their rankings right down.
Jerry Shang Juncheng, once ranked a career-high world No 48, is now 218, some 60 places below Wong after missing most of the season. China’s current best is Bu Yunchaokete, ranked 115, followed by world No 175 Wu Yibing – another player whose career has been blighted by injury and who Wong has beaten before.
From dominating the local youth scene to playing alongside the legendary Andre Agassi to training with the “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal, here’s how 21-year-old Wong became a Hong Kong National Games medal hopeful.
Biography
Wong was born on June 6, 2004, in Hong Kong to academic parents. He has one older sister, “who likes to study a lot”. He first picked up a racquet aged five, and though the family “haven’t really touched a [tennis] ball”, they have been fostering his tennis dreams ever since.
They have never pressured him out of the sport – on the contrary, they were “very open” to him becoming an athlete, and they educate themselves about competitions and recovery.