Lee Duk-hee (born 13 July 1953) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from South Korea.

Biography

Lee started in 1973 when she made the second round of the Australian Open, then featured as a doubles player at both the 1973 French Open and Wimbledon Championships. For the rest of the 1970s, she played only representative tennis for South Korea. She was a foundation player in South Korea's Fed Cup team, first featuring in its tournament debut in 1973, with regular appearances from 1976. At the

1974 Asian Games The 7th Asian Games ( fa, بازی‌های آسیایی ۱۹۷۴) were held from 1 to 16 September 1974 in Tehran, Imperial State of Iran. The Aryamehr Sports Complex was built for the Games. The Asian Games were hosted in the Middle East for th ...

, she partnered with

Lee Soon-oh Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese s ...

to win a silver medal in the women's doubles. She won two gold medals at the

1978 Asian Games The 8th Asian Games () were held from 9 to 20 December 1978, in Bangkok, Thailand. Originally, the host city was Singapore but Singapore dropped its plan to host the Games due to financial problems. Then Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, was de ...

in both the women's singles and doubles. Relocating to the United States, Lee became the first South Korean of either gender to play professional tennis in 1980. She featured in the singles draw of all four

grand slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournaments in 1980, which was also a first for a Korean. At the 1981 US Open, she lost in the fourth round to

Hana Mandlikova Hana or HANA may refer to: Places Europe * Haná, an ethnic region in Moravia, Czech Republic * Traianoupoli, Greece, called Hana during the Ottoman period * Hana, Norway, a borough in the city of Sandnes, Norway West Asia * Hana, Iran, a cit ...

after defeating

Susan Leo Susan Leo (born 10 August 1962) is a retired professional tennis player from Australia. She competed in the Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the ...

Susan Mascarin Susan Mascarin Keane, born Susan Mascarin (born June 28, 1964) is a retired tennis player from the U.S. Her best singles result in a Grand Slam was the 1984 US Open, where she advanced to the fourth round. Born in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan ...

and ninth-seed

Virginia Ruzici Virginia Ruzici (born 31 January 1955) is a former professional tennis player from Romania. She won the 1978 French Open singles championship. Career Ruzici became a professional tennis player in 1975. One of her main assets on court was her po ...

. In 1982, she defeated

Yvonne Vermaak Yvonne Vermaak (born 18 December 1956) is a former tour tennis player who represented her native South Africa. Vermaak's best result was reaching the semi-finals of the 1983 Wimbledon Championships, defeating Virginia Wade in the quarter-fina ...

to win the Fort Myers WTA tournament and had a win over

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...

en route to the quarterfinals of the German Open. She reached her career best ranking of 47 in the world in 1983, which was her final year on the professional tour. This remained the highest rank attained by a Korean female player for 20 years until surpassed by

Cho Yoon-jeong Cho Yoon-jeong ( ko, 조윤정, born 2 April 1979) is a retired South Korean tennis player. In her career, she won one doubles title on the WTA Tour, at Seoul in 2004. Her best Grand Slam performance came when she made the third round of the ...

WTA Tour finals

Singles (1-0)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Dukhee 1953 births Living people South Korean female tennis players Asian Games medalists in tennis Asian Games gold medalists for South Korea Asian Games silver medalists for South Korea South Korean emigrants to the United States Sportspeople from North Jeolla Province Tennis players at the 1974 Asian Games Tennis players at the 1978 Asian Games Medalists at the 1974 Asian Games Medalists at the 1978 Asian Games 20th-century South Korean women