Eudice Chong wins her first Hong Kong Championships tennis singles title as pandemic prevents her from travelling overseas
- The number one seed overcomes rising star Cody Wong in three sets after almost three hours of play at Victoria Park
- Chong is still in limbo over her plans to go overseas because of travel restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic
Eudice Chong lifted her first Hong Kong Championships singles title on Saturday after a three-set victory over up-and-coming Cody Wong Hong-yi, with the Covid-19 pandemic making sure she was in city to take part in the tournament.
The top seed took two hours and 55 minutes to overcome her rival on centre court at Victoria Park, claiming a hard-earned 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 win in the women’s singles final to collect the winner’s prize of HK$42,000.
“I haven’t played in the Hong Kong Championships for many years and treasure my first singles title here,” said the 24-year-old, who last played the event in 2014 before leaving to the United States for studies. “Over the past two years, I usually stay in Hong Kong for no more than a week before travelling overseas to play in the tour. But because of the pandemic, I have been staying in Hong Kong since March.
“As we already knew there wouldn’t be too many chances of going overseas this year, the Hong Kong Championships and the CRC Open early this month have been my targets and I am happy to win both.”
The Hong Kong number one, who ranks 384 in the WTA standings, said she was clueless as to when she could start travelling again for tournaments with the pandemic still playing havoc with her schedule.