Lee Duck-hee (이덕희; born 29 May 1998) is a South Korean professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

player. He has won 10 titles on the

ITF Junior Circuit The ITF Junior Circuit is the premier level for worldwide competition among under-18 junior tennis players. Founded in 1977 with only nine tournaments, the 2011 ITF Junior Circuit offered over 350 tournaments in 118 countries. Mirroring the ATP an ...

as a teenager, including Grade 2 tournaments in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

and

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

Personal life

Lee was born deaf. On the tennis court, he can hear vibrations, but must rely on hand gestures to pick up line calls and the umpire. In 2015, his story was included during a campaign for the

ANZ Bank ANZ may refer to: People * Anz (musician), a British DJ and electronic musician Banks * ANZ (bank), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Australia ** ANZ Bank New Zealand, the largest bank in New Zealand ** ...

, which was a sponsor for the Australian Open that year.

Professional career

He turned pro in 2013. He played his first Challenger match at age 14. In August 2019 he became the first deaf player to compete in and win a match in the main draw of an ATP tournament with a win over

Henri Laaksonen Henri Joona Julius Laaksonen (, Swiss Standard German: ; born 31 March 1992) is a Swiss professional tennis player. His highest singles ranking is world No. 84, which he achieved on 14 February 2022, and his highest doubles ranking is world No. 1 ...

at the Winston-Salem Open.

Challenger and Futures/World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 18 (13–5)

Doubles: 3 (0–3)

References

External links

* * 1998 births Living people South Korean male tennis players People from Jecheon Tennis players at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics Deaf tennis players South Korean deaf people Tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in tennis Asian Games bronze medalists for South Korea Sportspeople from North Chungcheong Province 21st-century South Korean people {{SouthKorea-tennis-bio-stub