Venise Chan: From Tennis Prodigy to Padel Pioneer

Venise Chan Wing-yau once carried a nickname heavy enough to crush a teenager. Touted as the “future Venus Williams of Hong Kong tennis” after reaching the national championships final at just 12, she grew up with expectation as a constant companion.

Looking back, she is thankful one thing was missing: social media.

There were no viral clips to dissect her footwork, no instant judgment from strangers, no endless scroll of opinions after every match. She could grow, stumble, and learn largely out of sight. A quarter of a century on, Chan is still stepping into the spotlight. Only now, the stage – and the sport – have changed.

This month, she will represent Hong Kong in padel on the sport’s Asian Games debut, throwing herself into what has become the world’s fastest-growing racquet game. Once again, she has picked up something new at speed.

For Chan, the Games will feel like a return and a reinvention rolled into one. Twelve years have passed since her last appearance at the multi-sport showpiece as a tennis player, the final chapter of a three-Games run on the traditional court. She walked away from that world, but she never really left the feel of a racquet behind.

Between then and now, Chan quietly built a second act. She moved into pickleball, another fast-rising discipline, and helped drive Hong Kong’s charge all the way to the World Cup final in the United States last year. Different court, different lines, same competitive edge.

The latest twist came not in a stadium, but at work. A colleague at Carret Private Capital, where Chan serves as a risk and compliance director, invited her to try padel. Curiosity did the rest.

She stepped on court. The walls, the angles, the tempo – it all clicked. By January, a casual hit had turned into something more serious. The thought arrived, clear and simple: “Maybe I could try for the Asian Games.”

From there, the momentum never really slowed.

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

Now, as padel steps onto the Asian Games programme for the first time, Chan arrives as a familiar name in an unfamiliar discipline, carrying the experience of three sports and three different waves of growth. The girl once compared to Venus Williams now stands as something else entirely: Hong Kong’s enduring racquet pioneer, still chasing new lines to hit.