The U.S. Open and Asian Tennis Parents
By wchung | 22 Feb, 2025

All those Asian ball kids and so few players says something about Asian American parents.

Thanks to a nightmare rain delay and my preference for using the DVR to compress matches down to a fast-paced blur, I won’t learn until tomorrow night whether Nadal will be taking on Federer in another instant classic. I am also keeping myself from learning whether Serena or Kim will have the honor of indoctrinating Yanina or Caroline in the niceties of a U.S. Open final until I can accelerate it on my DVR.

But one thing I have known since about Day 5: the only Asian American I’m going to see on the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium Sunday and Monday are the ball kids.

I am sure everyone who has watched the matches have noticed the remarkably high percentage of ball kids (actually more like ball teens — their average age is 18, I am told by John McEnroe) who are Asian. I would estimate it at about 70%. That isn’t surprising given the large number of Asians in the New York area and, more importantly, the fanatical devotion of so many Asian families to the sport.

Then why is it that there were only two Asian Americans among the 256 players in round one? On the men’s side there was 31-year-old Kevin Kim (ranked no. 100) who lost in the second round to fellow SoCal native Sam Querrey. On the women’s side there was 20-year-old Vania King who upset no. 15 Samantha Stosur in the 2nd round only to fall to Daniela Hantuchova.

I’m not denigrating the effort it took these two Asian Americans just to make it into the main draw. I am sure for each slot, there were 20 pros struggling to get in. My gripe is that more Asian American tennis talent hasn’t been allowed through the sieve of Asian American parental expectations.

An eyeball estimate of top tennis high schools suggests Asians are about 20-30% of the players. That gets winnowed down to about 10-15% at the college level and juniors competition. When you get to the pros, the figure drops way down to under 1%! I can only blame Asian parents who carefully prune their offsprings’ focus down to academics and college-app extracurriculars instead of encouraging those who have genuine athletic talent. As we have seen with Michael Chang—as well as with champions of all races—it takes a very supportive family to nurture a champion. I would venture to say that it’s next to impossible in today’s hyper-competitive sports world for a promising young athlete to focus intensely enough to become a champion without 110% support from the entire family.

I understand that a dentist, engineer or IT professional is more likely to earn a solid living than an aspiring tennis pro. I also accept that the circumstances of some families simply won’t allow that kind of investment and risktaking. I even understand that there may be subtle biases within the sport that make it harder for an Asian American youth to rise up into the ranks of top tour professionals.

At the same time, I can’t help feeling that something is lost by all of us when our next generation keeps having their talents whittled down relentlessly to bread-and-butter pursuits. That deep sense of regret tinges my enjoyment of every U.S. Open. Yet I continue to hope every September that we will see another Michael Chang rise up to the top of what I think is the most psychologically brutal and dramatic of all sports.