(CNN) — As a kid, people used to make fun of Duckhee Lee, telling him he shouldnt be playing tennis.
On Monday the West proved the doubters wrong by getting the first deaf player to win a match in the main attraction of the ATP Tour.
The 21-year-old, rated 212 from the world, saw off world No. 120 Henri Laaksonen 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 at the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina.
People made fun of me to my disability. They informed me I shouldnt be playingwith, Lee told reporters. It was definitely hard, but my family and friends helped me get through. I wanted to show everybody that I could do so.
My concept for men and women that are hearing impaired will be not to be deterred. If you try hard, you can do anything.
Huge effort
As stated by the ATP Tour site Lee — diagnosed as deaf elderly two — can not hear lineup calls or the score being known which means he must rely on signals from the umpire or people.
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Taught to lipread as a young child in Korean, the right-hander does not know sign language.
Throughout the post-match press conference, a tournament volunteer translated questions in Korean to Lees fiancee.
Three-time grand slam champion Andy Murray praised Lee for his achievement.
When I was to play with headphones on, its unbelievably difficult to pick up the speed of the ball, so the spin thats coming off the racquet. We utilize our ears a great deal to pick up things, the former world No.1 was quoted as saying about the ATP Tour website.
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Its obviously a enormous drawback, so to be in a position to perform what hes doing is a huge work.
Lee will play Polands Hubert Hurkacs Tuesday in the next round and told colleagues:Im likely to go to the game with precisely exactly the identical attitude. Im planning to do my best and see what happens.
Read more here: https://www.woodexperience.be/2019/10/14/aston-villa-0-0-west-ham-hammers-survive-arthur-masuaku-red-card/
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