As Chung prepares to play Federer today, I want to highlight an initiative of the ITF in 2010 when there were concerns with the lack of success by male players in Asia. Following a recommendation from my colleague Suresh Menon we decided to organise some high-performance training camps for the best young Asian boys in Bangkok.
To run these camps we hired Doug MacCurdy from USA and Gustavo Luza from Argentina who worked with Suresh Menon and Hyato Sakurai at the camps. Gustavo had been Davis Cup captain for Argentina and actively involved in the development of top Argentinian players.
We also brought in some top physical conditioning coaches including Spanish expert Alex Cualar and Robert Ballard. Hyeon Chung attended the camp in 2011 and all of the players underwent intensive training and were tested physically. The need for the players to work harder in the physical area and to get more matchplay experience playing on various court surfaces especially clay was highlighted and specific training programmes for each player developed.
There were, of course many other factors and Hyeon has had a good team around him throughout his development but I want to congratulate Doug, Gustavo, Hyato, Suresh, Alex and Robert for their great work.
Hyeon Chung pictured at the high performance camp. Also featured with Hyeon at the US Open in 2013 is Doug MacCurdy, who lived in Korea for two years and travelled to major tournaments with Chung.
