HK trio nominated to represent China at Paris 1924 - Hong Kong, China Tennis Association (2024)

A four-man team of overseas Chinese nationals was nominated by the Far Eastern Games Committee to represent China at the Paris 1924 Olympic Tennis Event. Among them were Hong Kong natives Wei Wing Lock, Ng Sze Kwong, and Ng Sze Cheung. In the opening round of the men’s singles, Wei Wing Lock was slated to face Sweden’s Henning Muller, Ng Sze Cheung drew Holland’s Christiaan Van Lennep, while Ng Sze Kwong was set to play Augustos Zerlendis of Greece. The trio was on the cusp of being China’s first Olympians a century ago, and they were tennis players from Hong Kong.

Wei Wing Lock, attended secondary school at St. Stephen’s out in Stanley and received his tertiary education starting at HKU before moving on to MIT and Cambridge, had already represented China in the Far Eastern Games (predecessor to Asian Games) in Manila in 1913, Shanghai in 1915 and 1921, and Osaka in 1923. While at King’s College, he was a member of the Cambridge men’s tennis team, and it was during this time in 1920 that he became the first Chinese player to compete at Wimbledon in both men’s singles (reached 2nd round) and doubles. In 1924, he was appointed by the Far Eastern Games Committee as captain in which he had full discretion to roster selection in what was China’s historic debut in both the Olympic Games and the Davis Cup that year.

As the playing-captain, he picked overseas Chinese nationals Khoo Hooi-Hye from Penang, and the Ng brothers from Hong Kong, Ng Sze Kwong and his half brother Ng Sze Cheung, for the Paris Games in 1924 and, presumably, the same roster for the impending, maiden Davis Cup tie against Australia in Brooklyn, New York, ten days after the Olympics as well. They were supposed to be the first athletes from China to compete at the Olympics.

Ng Sze Kwong was the most well-known tennis player in Hong Kong at the time since he was the first local Chinese to break the expat stranglehold on the Hong Kong National Grass Court Championships when he captured the men’s singles title six straight times from 1918-1923. He also won the first three editions of the men’s doubles with Wong Po Keung from 1917-19 and then partnered Wei Wing Lock to win it again back-to-back from 1922-23. He was also Chairman of the Chinese Recreation Club from 1921-1930. In 1928, the China National Amateur Athletic Federation appointed Ng as Captain and Wei Wing Lock as Manager of the Chinese team that was scheduled to face USA in that year’s Davis Cup. Ng was also appointed to the Selection Committee responsible for picking the roster for China’s 1935 Davis Cup tie against USA in Mexico City.

Unbeknownst to most, there is an inscription on the back of the CRC Open men’s singles trophy that reads:

NG SZE KWONG MEMORIAL CUP
PRESENTED BY FRIENDS & MEMBERS OF C.R.C. TO PERPETUATE THE FINE SPORTSMANSHIP OF THE LATE MR. NG SZE KWONG
C.R.C. OPEN HARDCOURT SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP

Information on Ng Sze Cheung is scant, other than the fact that he attended St Catharine’s, a college that has a strong reputation in racquet sports, and he was a member of the men’s team at Cambridge.

However, for reasons unknown, none of the four Chinese took part in the end. Page 378 of the Official Report of the Games of the VIII Olympiad, Paris 1924 stated that: “There was one complete withdrawal, that of China, and in addition to the four Chinese, Casanovas (Portugal), Babas (Yugoslavia), Colombo (Italy), Norman Brookes (Australia), Sabbadini (Italy) and Stern (Romania) were no-shows and gave walkovers to their designated opponents.” Elsewhere, the online database of www.olympics.com labeled all the aforementioned players simply as “did not start”.

Three weeks after Paris 1924, Wei Wing Lock captained China in its Davis Cup debut against Australia at the Crescent Athletic Club in Brooklyn, New York, but drafted in Paul Kong, who played collegiately at Columbia, to replace the other three. Australia was led by former two-time Wimbledon champion Gerald Patterson, who was listed by A. Wallis Myers as the world No. 1 for 1919. Paul Kong went on to compete at the 1924 US Open where he reached the second round.

The inscription on the back of the CRC Open School Boys’ Trophy reads:

PAUL KONG MEMORIAL CUP
PRESENTED BY THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS OF C.R.C. (1948) TO PERPETUATE THE FINE SPORTSMANSHIP OF THE LATE MR. PAUL T.C. KONG
C.R.C. OPEN HARDCOURT SCHOOL BOYS SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP

Ng Sze Kwong and Wei Wing Lock were inducted into the HKCTA Hall of Fame in 2003 and 2022 respectively.

Tennis has been contested in sporadic fashion throughout the history of the Olympic Games even though it was one of the founding sports at the first modern Olympiad in Athens in 1896. Unhappy with the relatively poor marketing and organisation of its sport over one too many Olympic Games, not to mention irreconcilable differences stemming from the amateur versus professional debate, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) suggested to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that it should be granted at least one representative on its committee; be allowed to cooperate in the technical and material organisation of tennis at the Games; and requested that the IOC drop its demand for Wimbledon not to be held in any Olympic year. When the IOC refused to recognise any of the requests, the ILTF withdrew tennis from Olympic competition following Paris 1924.¹

Despite a return as a demonstration event at Mexico 1968 and Los Angeles 1984, tennis did not make a definitive comeback as a full medal sport at the Olympic Games until Seoul 1988. A player from China did not get the opportunity to compete in the OTE until Atlanta 1996 with Pan Bing and Xia Jia-Ping in men’s doubles and Chen Li and Yi Jing-Qian in women’s doubles. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi beat wildcard entry Pan Bing and Xia Jia-Ping 4-6 6-4 6-4, while Tamarine Tanasugarn and Benjamas Sangaram defeated Chen Li and Yi Jing-Qian in the last sixteen 2-6 6-4 6-4.

For the record, Patricia Hy remains the only player from Hong Kong to compete at the Olympics when she was upended by No. 7 seed and eventual runner-up Sabrina Goles of Yugoslavia in the second round of the women’s singles at Los Angeles 1984, a demonstration event that was won by Fraulein Forehand, Steffi Graf. Sprinter Liu Changchun is officially China’s first Olympian when he competed in the Track & Field events at Los Angeles 1932. The first athlete from Hong Kong to compete at the Olympics was swimmer Vivian Yeung, who represented China at Berlin 1936. The National Olympic Committee (NOC) for Hong Kong did not exist until 1950, which was subsequently recognised by the IOC in 1951. Hong Kong (HKG) competed in the Olympic Games for the first time at Helsinki 1952.

The last time the OTE was held on clay came at Barcelona 1992. Unseeded Marc Rosset of Switzerland beat world No. 1 and two-time defending French Open champion Jim Courier 6-4 6-2 6-1 in the last sixteen en route to the final where he overcame Spaniard Jordi Arrese 7-6 6-4 3-6 4-6 8-6 to capture the gold medal. At ATP No. 44, Rosset is the lowest-ranked player to win an Olympic gold in men’s singles. In the women’s draw, Steffi Graf, the two-time defending Olympic champion, who was 19-1 on clay heading into the final that year, was upset by 16-year-old Jennifer Capriati 3-6 6-3 6-4. Graf had never lost a match at the OTE, winning the demonstration event at Los Angeles 1984 and the first Olympic medal in the Open Era at Seoul 1988. What’s more, Capriati was at the time 0-4 lifetime against Graf.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Tennis Event (OTE) is set to take place from July 27–August 4 at the Stade Roland Garros, home of the French Open. An intriguing aspect of the OTE is that since tennis returned as a medal sport at Seoul 1988, the No. 1-ranked player in the world during the Olympics have won the gold medal in women’s singles just twice – Steffi Graf (1988) and Justine Henin (2004) – while none have done so on the men’s side. In fact, Roger Federer (2012) is the only world No. 1 to reach the men’s singles final in the past 36 years.

*

¹2008 Olympic Tennis Event Media Guide: The Games of the XXIX Olympiad Beijing / International Tennis Federation.

Paris 1924 Opening Ceremony photo: www.olympic.com.

Ng Sze Kwong photo courtesy of the Chinese Recreation Club