‘Park Jeong-kwon’s daughter’ Park Ye-seo, national junior tennis player
At the age of 14, he was 177 cm tall and had great power, so he joined Orion.
Role model is Sabalenka, dream of Olympic medal
“Tennis is a year-round competition, so you have to play well in all four seasons.”
Park Jeong-kwon (left), a former baseball star, and Park Ye-seo, a promising tennis star, are posing affectionately at the Monarch Tennis Club in Songdo, Incheon at the end of November. Park Ye-seo, who inherited her father’s DNA, is said to have great potential for development as she is 177cm tall and has excellent athletic ability. Reporter Choi Joo-yeon
Yeseo (14, Orion), the daughter of former baseball star and commentator Park Jeong-kwon (43), is growing into a promising figure who will brighten the future of Korean tennis. At 177cm tall, she is much taller than her peers and has enough strength to practice with her older brother. Last August, he carved the Taegeuk symbol that his father could not wear during his active career and played in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Junior Finals, a national competition, as a member of the Korean under-14 national team.
The father and daughter, who met at the Monarch Tennis Club in Songdo, Incheon, at the end of last month, bickered like friends, but seriously envisioned a future together as seniors and juniors in sports. Ye Seo-yang, who has liked being active since she was young and picked up a tennis racket for the first time at the age of seven, said, “I tried to swim at first, but there were so many people waiting, so I was pushed back,” and “I wanted to do something, so I used a tennis racket, but there happened to be a tennis court in front of the house, so my mom He suggested, ‘Would you like to play tennis?’ “After playing it a few times, I liked the feeling of the ball hitting the racket, and it was fun because the coaches praised me when the ball went over the net,” he said, explaining his background on getting started.
Ye-Seo Park is in a serve stance. Reporter Choi Joo-yeon
The father was skeptical as he watched his daughter continue to exercise for generations. Park Jeong-kwon said, “I assured him that he would quit after less than three months,” and added, “But the more I did it, the more I saw his concentration increase, and I said, ‘He’s serious. “I felt like I was really trying to play tennis, and I was proud that I had come this far,” he said. In response, Ye Seo-yang expressed her respect by saying, “It was difficult to train every day and participate in competitions,” and “I think my dad, who has been exercising longer than me, is amazing.”
When asked to choose the part that father and daughter are most similar to, Park Jeong-kwon said, “Face.” Ye Seo-yang, who waved her hand in denial at her father’s unexpected answer, replied, “I have a will to win.” Mother Kim Eun-mi, who heard the father and daughter’s story, said, “It’s the same thing that we can’t control our anger when exercising,” and Park Jeong-kwon said, “If you’re an athlete, you need that. Instead, it is important to solve it well,” he emphasized.
Ye Seo-yang, who knows her father well, who was especially strong in big games during his active career and was called the ‘autumn regime’, said that in the future, “I want to inherit my father’s DNA of being able to produce good results at important moments.” Park Jung-kwon, who joined SSG’s predecessor SK in 2004 and played as a ‘one-club man’ until 2019, was selected as the series MVP (MVP) for three consecutive seasons in the 2009 playoffs, 2010 Korean series, and 2011 playoffs, and received three championship rings. got a dog
Father and daughter practicing tennis together. Reporter Choi Joo-yeon
As a senior athlete, Park Jeong-kwon passed on his know-how to his daughter. He said, “Don’t reject tension, but you shouldn’t express it outwardly. The ranking is determined by the difference between the player who only holds it on the inside and the player who shows it on the outside. The reason why my dad always jokingly tells me to ‘hit only the center of the racket’ and ‘only hit it inside the line’ is that if you try to focus on the process, you won’t have to think about the result. “When I’m nervous, it’s important to just focus on my play,” he said.
The daughter nodded to the sincere advice, but hoped that her father would have a different nickname that included ‘autumn’. Ye Seo-yang laughed and said, “Tennis competitions don’t have a specific period and are continuous, so you can’t just play well in the fall.” Park Jeong-kwon said, “Baseball shouldn’t just be good in the fall. “It’s because the impact was strong in the fall, so it wasn’t that bad (during the regular season),” he said, feeling aggrieved. When the topic of nicknames came up, his mother, Eunmi Kim, said she saw a comment comparing it to the baseball postseason and brought up the expression ‘Four Season Yeseo.’ Ye Seoyang expressed satisfaction with the meaning of doing well all year round, saying, “It’s not bad.”
Park Jeong-kwon and Park Ye-seo father and daughter. Reporter Choi Joo-yeon
Yeseoyang, whose role model is world number one Arina Sabalenka (Belarus), began participating in the international junior stage last year. Although he is still ranked 632nd in the world, he is said to have great potential for development due to his tall stature and excellent athletic ability. The reason why Orion, the only tennis team operated by a large domestic company, recruited Park Ye-seo was because it looked to the future rather than the present.
Ye Seo-yang said, “My goal is to raise my ranking to the top 100 next year and play in the junior major competition next year,” and added, “If I win a medal at the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, I want to achieve it because it means having a father who is not there. “When I ran with the Taegeuk symbol, I wanted to do better and felt proud,” he said. Park Jeong-kwon, who happily heard his daughter’s aspirations, smiled and said, “Dad, I tried representing the school,” and then added, “I have to break through the walls of the world. “First of all, I hope you don’t get sick and that you can continue to enjoy tennis happily,” he said.
Kim Ji-seop reporter [email protected]
