Duckhee Lee became the first deaf player to win a match on the ATP Tour when he beat Henri Laaksonen 7-6(4), 6-1 in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open on Monday night. It was the first-ever tour-level match for the 21-year-old South Korean, who has mostly been playing Challengers and Futures,
Lee held nine of 10 service games while striking nine aces.
“People made fun of me for my disability,” the world No. 212 said through a translator. “They told me I shouldn’t be playing. It was definitely difficult, but my friends and family helped me get through. I wanted to show everyone that I could do this. My message for people who are hearing impaired is to not be discouraged. If you try hard, you can do anything.”
Fellow professionals were already impressed, and that will certainly be the case to an even greater extent if Lee continues to make headlines on the main tour.
“I beat him a few years ago and he came up to me with a Google translator after the match and said, ‘What are my weaknesses?’ reflected Tennys Sandgren, who defeated Andy Murray 7-6(8), 7-5 on Monday in Winston-Salem. “For someone who’s deaf and doesn’t speak English well at all, to put yourself out there like that… I wouldn’t do it! It was really cool.
“You learn so much about how your opponent hits the ball based on the sound of the shot. If you can’t hear it…you have to have insane skill and insane talent.”
“If I was to play with headphones on, it’s unbelievably difficult to pick up the speed of the ball–the spin that’s coming off the racket,” Murray explained. “We use our ears a lot to pick things up. It’s obviously a huge disadvantage, so to be able to do what he’s doing is a huge effort.”
Next up for Lee is Hubert Hurkacz during second-round action on Tuesday.
“I’m going to go to the match with the same attitude,” he said. “I’m going to do my best and see what happens.”
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