Spring Break
The Daily OrangeFreshman from Malaysia quickly acclimates to Syracuse
By Scott Lieber
Posted: 4/17/03, 12:18 AM EST Section: Sports
Hours of deliberation, countless e-mails, hundreds of calls and 10,000 miles brought Wei-Ming Leong to Syracuse.
Leong, who hails from Malaysia, is the latest in a long line of Syracuse tennis players to trek from overseas. Such a long journey might imply potential problems — homesickness, culture shock, shyness. But for Leong, the road has been relatively smooth.
Hours of deliberation by Leong, who needed to decide which sport to pursue, angled her onto this path. At age 11, she swam. She played badminton and ping pong. She dominated Cornette ball, an English variation of basketball.
"I was good in other sports," Leong said. "I just didn't like them."
Leong prioritized swimming. She woke up at 5 a.m. to practice and swam until school started at 7:30. Weekend swimming sessions followed at a nearby country club.
The grueling schedule caused her to liken her coach to "a mean monster." She lost her passion for the sport.
"(The coach would) make you do sprints, like a 50-meter dash," Leong said. "Then you jump up, climb on the platform, she blows the whistle, and you jump back down again. Back and forth. It was just plain tiresome. It was torture."
So, at age 11, while agonizing in the pool, Leong saw a game of tennis at the far side of the club. Already sick of swimming, Leong picked up a racket and began playing the game most top players begin at 4.
"You just get to a stage where you have to choose and become serious about a sport," Leong said. "I got into tennis, and I just loved it and picked it up really fast."
Fast is an understatement. Within two years, Leong had won a state championship. In 1998, she won the national singles under-14 championship. She was a national singles under-16 semifinalist and doubles champion in 1999 and 2000.
Leong played tennis four hours a day for four years. Every day, she'd come home, eat a snack, do homework, call her coach and head to the club. Within two years, Leong became one of Malaysia’s top players.
Leong, who hails from Malaysia, is the latest in a long line of Syracuse tennis players to trek from overseas. Such a long journey might imply potential problems — homesickness, culture shock, shyness. But for Leong, the road has been relatively smooth.
Hours of deliberation by Leong, who needed to decide which sport to pursue, angled her onto this path. At age 11, she swam. She played badminton and ping pong. She dominated Cornette ball, an English variation of basketball.
"I was good in other sports," Leong said. "I just didn't like them."
Leong prioritized swimming. She woke up at 5 a.m. to practice and swam until school started at 7:30. Weekend swimming sessions followed at a nearby country club.
The grueling schedule caused her to liken her coach to "a mean monster." She lost her passion for the sport.
"(The coach would) make you do sprints, like a 50-meter dash," Leong said. "Then you jump up, climb on the platform, she blows the whistle, and you jump back down again. Back and forth. It was just plain tiresome. It was torture."
So, at age 11, while agonizing in the pool, Leong saw a game of tennis at the far side of the club. Already sick of swimming, Leong picked up a racket and began playing the game most top players begin at 4.
"You just get to a stage where you have to choose and become serious about a sport," Leong said. "I got into tennis, and I just loved it and picked it up really fast."
Fast is an understatement. Within two years, Leong had won a state championship. In 1998, she won the national singles under-14 championship. She was a national singles under-16 semifinalist and doubles champion in 1999 and 2000.
Leong played tennis four hours a day for four years. Every day, she'd come home, eat a snack, do homework, call her coach and head to the club. Within two years, Leong became one of Malaysia’s top players.
