“The most important part for me is to stay fit, but I’m not as fit as before,” admits the 30-year-old. Having a corporate job has significantly curtailed opportunities to practise and hone her skills. In a recent tournament, she developed cramps in the second set.

As a pro, her regimen included training several hours daily. She competed at major competitions such as the Asian Games, and travelled to more than 30 countries to compete in events. She competed in four junior Grand Slams – including the US Open in 2006 and the French Open two years later.

 At the peak of her junior career, she was ranked No 24 in the world, and No 2 in Asia.

Since quitting the pro circuit in 2013, Chan has spent most of her days in an office – but continues to make fitness and sports features of her life. She recently helped young people with autism train for a charity run for the Bridge Foundation.

“They are just like normal kids and need motivation and love and sports – it’s good if I can help some charity as a sports figure,” she says.

Her father, Leslie Chan, a business executive and tennis fan, got his daughter involved in the sport. He would placed toys on the sofa as target practice for her.

“I could actually hit the target even when I was three or four years old,” she recalls. He taught her how to swing a racket, and she showed enough promise for him to sign her up for private lessons.

Eventually she joined the Hong Kong Tennis Association’s Star of the Future programme.

By the age of eight, Chan was competing in tournaments for under 10s. By 10, she was competing in the under 12s.

By 14, her many victories had vaulted her into global tournaments, including tours to Egypt where she won two singles titles.

When she was 10, her father insisted she prepare a Plan B in the event her athletic career sputtered, encouraging her to keep up her studies and acquire a university education.

“A lot of athletes … if they don’t do that, all they can become is a coach [after retirement]; my dad wanted me to have more options in life,” she says.

Chan was a high achiever in both the sporting and academic realms. During high school, she finished her homework quickly to make way for three to four hours a day of tennis practice. She credits the sport for endowing her with life skills such as time management.

Chan earned a scholarship to the University of Washington, where she majored in business entrepreneurship and marketing, and played collegiate tennis. Upon graduating in 2012, Chan competed in Women’s Tennis Association tournaments for two years (her highest ranking was 340 in singles in 2013). A back injury, caused in part by a mild S-shaped curvature of her spine, ended her tennis career.

“I really couldn’t serve at one point,” she says.

Working for a financial institution took some adjustment. To offset the impact of prolonged sitting, she runs or works out during her lunch break. One of her go-to places is the trampoline fitness studio Bounce Limit, which she visits two or three times a week.

She likes to hike on weekends, and counts the Dragon’s Back trek on Hong Kong Island among her favourites.

Even after a hectic day, Chan finds time for exercise. especially tennis which instantly lifts her mood. “After five minutes the energy comes back,” she says. “My mind is refreshed … my brain works better so I can study better, work better and think better.”

Her view that staying active and breaking up prolonged sitting improves health is supported by research, including a 2018 study at Liverpool John Moores University on the impact on the brain of long hours of uninterrupted sitting.

The researchers studied 15 office workers who engaged in different levels of activity, then sat for four hours while blood flow to their brain was measured through ultrasound. They found that the flow slowed during long hours of sitting, but breaking such stillness with activity – such as frequent short walking breaks of as little as two minutes every 30 minutes – offset that effect.

Despite the study’s small sample, the research supports much literature on the link between lack of physical activity and a higher risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, with the implication that people should stay active to encourage blood flow to this organ. The study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

In preparation for the upcoming CRC Open, Chan has stepped up training at the club, in the morning or after work.

In 2016, she became the first player to clinch the women’s singles, doubles and mixed double titles in the same year at the CRC Open since Tong Ka-po in 1999.

Chan is not sure she can repeat this feat given the cramps she endured three years ago due to insufficient practice.

“[It all depends] on how fit I am, because it’s tiring to play three events in two weeks,” she says, but she will give it her best shot.