Venise Chan: From Tennis Prodigy to Padel Competitor at Asian Games

Venise Chan Wing-yau was barely a teenager when Hong Kong tennis anointed her its next big thing. At 12, after storming into the national championships final, she picked up a nickname heavy with expectation: the “future Venus Williams of Hong Kong tennis”.

She is thankful that label arrived in a different era. No Instagram. No TikTok. No endless judgement in the comments section. The spotlight was bright enough without a phone in every hand.

A quarter of a century on, Chan is still stepping into the light – and still mastering a new sport at speed.

This month, she will walk out not with a tennis racquet, but with a padel bat, representing Hong Kong as the sport makes its Asian Games debut. For Chan, it is not just another tournament. It is a return to a stage she last graced 12 years ago, when she played the final Asian Games of her tennis career.

The years in between were anything but quiet. Chan pivoted into pickleball, quickly climbing to elite level and helping the Hong Kong team reach the World Cup final in the United States last year. Different court, different lines, same competitive edge.

Padel arrived almost by accident. A colleague at Carret Private Capital, where Chan works as a risk and compliance director, invited her to try it. One hit was enough to stir something familiar.

By January, the casual knockabout had turned into a serious idea: “Maybe I could try for the Asian Games,” she thought.

The experiment didn’t stay casual for long.

“Once I started playing, I didn’t stop,” she said.

Now, the former prodigy who once carried the weight of a nation’s tennis hopes will stand at another starting line, in another booming racquet sport, with Hong Kong stitched across her back again.