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Paul McNamara

Christened the “future Venus Williams of Hong Kong tennis” after reaching the national championships final at 12, Venise Chan Wing-yau is grateful in hindsight that she was spared the social media glare that shines so harshly on today’s emerging stars.
Still, a quarter of a century later and Chan is still putting herself out there. Still very quick to get the hang of her chosen sport, too.
After switching her focus to padel at the beginning of this year, Chan will represent Hong Kong in what is the world’s fastest-growing racquet sport on its Asian Games debut this month.
It will mark a return for Chan to the multi-sport spectacular, 12 years after she competed in the last of her three Games as a tennis player. In the intervening period, Chan carved out a career in pickleball and was part of the city team that reached the World Cup final in America last year.
After originally trying padel with a colleague from Carret Private Capital, where she works as a risk and compliance director, Chan started thinking in January that “maybe I could try for the Asian Games”.

“Once I started playing, I didn’t stop,” she said.
“I’m sure there are other people who want my spot and to play for Hong Kong, but I think I was lucky and the timing was right. I took the opportunity and really wanted to do well this year.”
Ranked No 9 in Asia and at 282 in the world, but top of the tree in Hong Kong, Chan was recently with the city squad for a camp in Bali, where she also partnered Spanish world No 72 Alba Perez Momha to the quarter-finals of a competition on Padel’s second-tier Cupra FIP Tour.
Currently competing in Paris, Chan grew accustomed to spending long periods away from family and friends as she chased tennis success.
“I have open-minded parents who allowed me to do online schooling and go around the world to get [ranking] points,” she said.
It was back at home in 2002, however, that the 12-year-old Chan claimed a succession of notable local scalps on her way to the national final at Victoria Park.
A contemporary South China Morning Post report hailed a “little slip of a girl” who was “the future Venus Williams of local tennis”.
Describing herself today as a “part-time social media influencer”, and with an Instagram following pushing 57,000, Chan said: “I didn’t feel like there was too much spotlight on me; I was in newspapers but there wasn’t any social media.
“Also, when you’re younger, you’re less stressed. I just wanted to get out there and try to win; I didn’t have any pressure.”
By the time she won the first of her six ITF singles titles on the hard courts of Manila at 16, Chan was finding the expectation she imposed on herself “tougher to handle”.
“My mental state was much better from about 12 to 15,” she said. “Afterwards, I began to feel I had to do well.”
Maintaining a sharp focus on studying helped alleviate the pressure “because I always want to challenge myself in different areas and not do well in just one thing”.
“I never saw a sports psychologist because I was never super stressed,” Chan said.
“My parents supported me, and weren’t the types to yell at me if I didn’t do well, so there was no need to overstress.
“My motivation comes from inside, so it’s not like I was forced to do anything.”

A competitor in all four junior grand slams, Chan played on the unforgiving American collegiate circuit, ranking 15th and 17th in 2010 and 2011, respectively, while majoring in marketing and entrepreneurship at the UW Foster School of Business in Seattle.
“I focused on studying and tennis. I didn’t go out a lot and wasn’t hanging out with friends, but I had a goal in mind, so I was fine with it,” Chan said.
“Everything you do comes with sacrifices and having that focus set me up for the next phase of my life.”
Chan, 37, would have the opportunity to pursue a “student lifestyle” when she obtained her philosophy master’s degree from Cambridge University, directly after a persistent back problem forced her premature tennis retirement in 2013.
“My dad had always told me you can’t just have a Plan A, because if you get injured it’s the end,” Chan, who reached a career high of world No 340, said.
“I was fine with having to stop playing tennis. I got into business, because I needed to make money. It’s the real world, isn’t it?”
Also the founder of Asia Aces Pickleball Academy in Wong Chuk Hang, and given some financial support from her domestic team, The One Padel Academy at Go Park Sports, Chan said that she “doesn’t see myself as having played competitively for the past 10 years”.
“Although I was playing pickleball [in competition since 2020] I felt I was using a recreational mindset to play at a competitive level,” she added.
Last November, soon after the Pickleball World Cup final, which Hong Kong lost to the USA, Chan told the SCMP that she was “not going to kill myself chasing sporting success”.
Ahead of her fourth Asian Games, where alongside partner Debbie Lau Hiu-wai her goal is to “win every match and get a medal for Hong Kong”, Chan said she had tried to retain her equanimous outlook.

“I want to win, but it’s not that it’s a must, and I’ll feel really sad if I don’t,” she said. “I try hard but winning or losing is part of life. I like to challenge myself, and this is another challenge.”
Planning to weigh up her sporting future after the Games, Chan said that having no squash background had meant the toughest ask in padel was trying to adapt to the enclosed courts and the ball staying in play after it hits the wall.
After padel beat pickleball to the Asian Games punch, Chan expects her new sport to win the race for Olympic recognition, too.
“Padel is much more organised and has one entity overseeing it internationally, but in pickleball they’re still fighting up there,” she said.
The mother of a three-year-old son, Chan added: “It’s a very good thing to show people that even at my age and with a kid, you can still do this. You can still have goals and dreams after having a child.”


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Tipped to follow in American great’s footsteps, Venise Chan spying padel glory after claiming six ITF titles, Pickleball World Cup silver


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tipped to follow in American great’s footsteps, Venise Chan spying padel glory after claiming six ITF titles, Pickleball World Cup silver

Tipped to follow in American great’s footsteps, Venise Chan spying padel glory after claiming six ITF titles, Pickleball World Cup silver