At the 1983 junior Wimbledon Championships, then 17 year-old Hy not only lifted the girls’ doubles trophy with partner Patty Fendick, of the United States, she also reached the girls’ singles final the same year.

Four years later, Hy achieved more success, reaching the 1987 Australian Open doubles semi-finals before she and her partner, Etsuko Inoue of Japan, were stopped by top seeds Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver of the United States.

That was before her dizzying success at Flushing Meadows, where she reached the quarter-finals of the US Open in 1992, losing to a certain Monica Seles, the eventual champion.

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“I did not want to play in the Wimbledon junior events that year because I was exhausted,” said the former Hong Kong number one, now known as Patricia Hy-Boulais after she emigrated to Canada in 1988 and later got married.

“By the time we went to Wimbledon that year, I had been on the junior tour in Europe with my mother, playing in Italy and France for almost two months before I played in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles at Wimbledon. It had been a 10-week long trip including the junior events in the second week.

“At that time, I also had a WTA ranking of 65 and therefore playing the junior events did not mean that much to me. I was done after such a long journey. But then my mother said it would be my last junior event and even bribed me by offering a trip flying back to Paris to go shopping after Wimbledon.”

Hy and Fendick overcame Carin Anderholm and Helena Olsson of Sweden, who had just won the French Open junior title. Hy and her partner won 6-1, 7-5. Fendick and Hy trained at the same tennis academy, Nick Bollettieri, in Florida and knew each other well.

A day after Hy’s history-making title, she lost to France’s Pascale Paradis in straight sets in the girls’ final. Hy reckoned she didn’t play her best, believing that exhaustion had played a big part in her loss. She was so exhausted playing at Wimbledon that year that Hy flew straight back to Hong Kong without going to Paris as promised by her mother.

Now working as a mental strength coach in Toronto after retiring from the sport, 56-year-old Hy still feels proud of her achievements for Hong Kong, the city she first settled in when she was just six years old.

“During those years, there were political uncertainties in Cambodia where my parents came from and therefore my family decided to move to Hong Kong,” she said. “My father was also a tennis player and played for Cambodia. After we moved to Hong Kong, he worked as a coach and later became tennis director at Kowloon Cricket Club but still played in local tournaments.

“After school, my mother used to pick me up to take me to the tennis courts to watch my father teach. It was simply a natural transition from watching my father play before I developed interest in tennis.”

Her father became her coach until Hy was 15 before the call-up to train at the world-renowned Nick Bollettieri Academy on a scholarship in Florida came. It became the tipping point in her career.

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In 1981, the young player represented Hong Kong in the Federation Cup for the first time when she teamed up with Tsui Yuen-yuen, who won a silver medal in doubles at the 1962 Asian Games, for the tournament held in Tokyo.

Hy scored the only rubber (point) for Hong Kong in singles when the city lost to the Netherlands 2-1 in the first round. In the consolation round, Hong Kong were beaten by Yugoslavia 3-0.

It was also competing in the Federation Cup that her life would take a different direction.

In 1987 when she represented Hong Kong at the event in Vancouver, she was spotted by Canadian scouts, who took an interest in her steady and determined play.

Hong Kong met West Germany in the opening round of the world group and Hy had an impressive match against then world number one Steffi Graf, taking one set off the world’s best player at the time, before losing the tie 2-1. But in the consolation round, Hong Kong made it all the way through, beating Finland, Belgium, Brazil and Sweden to reach the final where they lost to the Netherlands 2-1.

“My father told me someone from the Canadian side wanted to use a player like me,” recalled Hy. “At that time, Hong Kong was also unstable with 1997 on the horizon and the change of sovereignty [handover]. In fact, the year before I had talks with my family to consider moving to another country with San Francisco and Los Angeles top choices as I also studied at UCLA for two years. But suddenly the opportunity came and in consideration of my tennis future, we made the decision to move to Canada.

“It was tough. I grew up in Hong Kong, all my friends were there and Hong Kong was home to me. The decision was made purely for my tennis future.”

After leaving Hong Kong in 1988, Hy played for her new country and in 1992, she reached the quarter-finals of the US Open, attaining a career-high ranking of world number 28 the following year. She also made it to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 1996 and 1997 before she retired from competition in 1998. She was inducted into the Hong Kong Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017.