Antoine Hoang wants this week to continue for the rest of his life. The 23-year-old Frenchman is into the third round at Roland Garros, and will next meet one of the flag bearers of French men's tennis for the past decade.
Here are five things to know about the 23-year-old Hoang:
1. He had one tour-level win before this week.
Hoang won his first ATP Challenger Tour title last October in Eckental and in February, he celebrated his maiden tour-level win at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.
Hoang qualified for the ATP 250 event and beat Belgian Steve Darcis before losing to countryman Jeremy Chardy. The French wild card has doubled his career win total this week by making the third round in Paris.
“I could not explain. Good things happen to me this time,” Hoang said. “I'm a bit lucky sometimes. Today Fernando served for the third set. He did 40/0 on his game, and then the things turned to my side. I don't know. I can't explain everything. But I have nothing to lose here, so I try to enjoy every moment, to push every time.”
2. He has a university degree.
Hoang is all in on his tennis career, but he has a backup plan if things don't go exactly to plan. He has a university degree in sports.
“My parents pushed me to study so that I could have a Plan B. I don't know if it's a good idea. But when one has a project, we should actually push it as far as possible at 20, 21, 22,” Hoang said.
“Now I'm giving myself 100 per cent to this project. I'm not thinking about teaching with my sports degree. Maybe I'm arriving on the Tour later than others, but I still have a lot of beautiful years ahead of me. I can evolve and progress. I do not regret what I have done so far.”
3. He is ambidextrious.
The way Hoang explains it, shoulder problems led him to decide to train with his left arm. “I made quite a lot of progress,” he said.
But once he fully recovered from his injury and wanted to again play his best, he switched back to using his right hand.
“I started playing tennis when I was a kid with my right hand, so I was playing forehand and backhand normally, but I already had a good backhand,” Hoang said. “Then when I got hurt, as I said, I learned to play with my left hand, doing the forehand and maybe the left-handed backhand.”
4. He works with a mental coach.
Perhaps Hoang has had the best week of his life because, mentally, what he needs to do on the court is clearer than ever. He worked with a mental coach before Roland Garros.
“The aim was to stay focused on my objectives, to encourage myself from the beginning to the end, even if there are mistakes, even if the match is not perfect,” Hoang said.
“I've been working on this on a daily basis, how to keep a positive mindset. I like to have attacking shots, so sometimes I make mistakes and it's hard to follow this mentally because you may wonder, 'Why are you making such mistakes?' And this is actually what I think about myself, too. I try to be stable and composed, mentally speaking.”
The self-proclaimed introvert has stayed mentally composed despite rarely encouraging himself out loud. Hoang said showing emotions on court isn't easy for him, but he's working on it.
“The mental fight is important and sharing emotions with the crowd is important. I'm making efforts to do so. I'm trying to encourage myself when I tend not to. It's very important,” he said.
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5. He next plays the face of men's tennis in France.
Hoang will want to play as fearless as possible when he meets Gael Monfils, surely at Court Philippe Chatrier, the main show court, or Court Suzanne Lenglen, the second biggest court at Roland Garros.
Monfils made the third round for the 11th time by dismissing countryman Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. The 32-year-old has yet to drop a set in Paris.
“I know Gael from watching him on TV. I really enjoyed watching him, whether in Davis Cup or in other international tournaments,” Hoang said. “He's a very nice person, so I guess the atmosphere of the match will be good. We're not going to fight each other in that way. But the public will be behind both of us and will support a good game, so I believe we will both get support from the public.”
About playing on a bigger court, Hoang said, “All these things I'm not used to going through. It's a first for me, and I feel that these things I wanted to go through, I didn't want to be afraid.”
from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2wvvlRX
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