Duckhee Lee
It is not every day that a 17-year-old has the admiration of 9-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal. Then again South Korea’s Duckhee Lee is far from your average tennis player. Watching him play, he appears no different to his rivals, but Lee is completely deaf and has a speech impediment. Despite being born with a disability Lee has not let it stand in the way of him developing a successful career as a tennis player.
“People describe deafness as a handicap” – Lee was quoted by Eurosport Italia saying.
“It really does not affect me particularly, because I see it as my advantage over other players, kind of a special gift that others do not have: being deaf, in fact, it is very difficult to be distracted during the game by the crowd or my opponent. This allows me to concentrate more on my game”.
The former junior world No.3 has won five Futures title this year across Asia, playing 82 matches on the tour (winning 56 of them). Lee has also reached the quarterfinals at three Challenger tournaments in 2015 in Seoul, An-Ning and Suzhou. During Wimbledon he was invited to be a hitting partner with world No.1 Novak Djokovic ahead of the Serbians quarter-final clash against Kevin Anderson.
The South Korean is a very unique player with an outstanding shot selection. At 231 in the world Lee will be bidding to crack the top 200 in 2016 and play in his first Grand Slam main draw.
The story of Duckhee Lee by ANZ Australia
