Venise Chan Wing-yau was once introduced to Hong Kong as the “future Venus Williams” – a 12-year-old prodigy storming into a national tennis championships final, all power and promise. She grew up before the age of likes, clips and comment sections, and she knows exactly how fortunate that timing was.
A quarter of a century on, she is still stepping into new arenas. Still learning fast. Still competing for Hong Kong.
This month, Chan will walk into the Asian Games not with a tennis racquet in hand, but a padel bat, representing the city in a sport that has exploded across the globe and now makes its debut on the continental stage. For her, it is both a return and a reinvention.
Twelve years have passed since she last played the Games as a tennis player, the culmination of a career that took her across tours and into the heart of Hong Kong’s sporting consciousness. When that chapter closed, she didn’t drift away from competition. She simply changed courts.
Chan built a second act in pickleball, adapting her feel for angles and timing to a smaller court and a different rhythm. She rose quickly there too, earning a place in the city team that reached the World Cup final in the United States last year. Another sport, another world stage, the same competitive edge.
Padel arrived almost by chance. A colleague at Carret Private Capital, where Chan works as a risk and compliance director, suggested they give it a try. One session turned into a habit. The habit turned into a thought.
By January, that thought sharpened into a target: “Maybe I could try for the Asian Games.”
The idea stuck. So did she. “Once I started playing, I didn’t stop,” Chan said.
Now, as padel steps into the Asian Games spotlight for the first time, Hong Kong’s former tennis prodigy stands ready once more, carrying an old reputation into a new sport – and proving that some competitive fires never go out, they just find different lines to paint across the court.
