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Monday, 21 January 2013

Anyone for Tennis ?


Korean youngster Lee Duck-hee dreams of life at the  top of the tennis world. It is a dream shared by elite junior players the  world over, but what makes Lee different is that he is deaf.

In a sport in which players lean heavily on their hearing to calibrate their timing, gauge levels of spin and power and feed off the support of the crowd, Lee's disadvantage is greater than might first be suspected.  But the 14-year-old who has been deaf from birth refuses to make a big deal  of his disability.  Lip-reading, then speaking through an interpreter, Lee told reporters at the  Australian Open that, in fact, he would rather not even mention his deafness  to opponents or officials.

"The one thing that's difficult is the communication with the umpires, both  chair umpires and linesmen," he said. "I don't hear the calls, especially  the out calls, so sometimes ... just continue. That's kind of difficult but it's nothing special."  It happened a number of times during Lee's second-round clash with Chile's  Christian Garin in the junior event on Monday, a match Lee eventually lost  6-3 6-3.

"I do worry about that because today it happened a lot of times," said Lee,  who gets round his deafness in doubles by lip-reading his partner.  "The chair umpire already called 'wait' but I couldn't hear that, so there  were a lot of lets. I wanted to see big (gestures) from the umpire during  the match."

According to the Australian Open, officials received no specific direction  before the match to let them know Lee is deaf but on a number of occasions,  umpire Thomas Sweeney used his hands to communicate.  For most players, hearing the sound their opponent's racket makes when they  strike the ball is crucial to judging how hard it will be and how to react  to the spin.

LINK

Sorry omitted it earlier.

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