Jason Jung joins the Functional Tennis podcast to share his journey as a professional tennis player, including the challenges he faced with injuries and the decision to switch national representation to Taiwan. He discusses the financial and personal motivations behind this choice, highlighting how it opened doors for sponsorships and competitive opportunities. Jason candidly reflects on his struggles during a tough year in 2017, where he faced numerous first-round exits, and how a pivotal win at the University Games revitalized his career. The conversation also touches on the rigorous travel schedule of professional players and the mental toll it can take, especially toward the end of the season. As Jason prepares for fatherhood, he shares his thoughts on whether he would encourage his child to pursue tennis, balancing his expertise with the challenges of the sport.

I chat with Jason Jung and we discuss, his ups and downs as a player, whether he would go back to college looking back on his career and why players are on edge late in the tennis season.

This podcast is sponsored by ASICS. ASICS is a Japanese company founded in 1949 to give more people the opportunity to experience how sports and movement can have a positive impact on mental well-being.

To learn more about ASICS visit their website here: https://www.asics.com/nl/en-nl/sports/tennis/

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Welcome to the Functional Tennis podcast.

I'm your host, Fabio Molly, and I bring you insights and lessons from players, coaches, parents, and experts who are ingrained in the world of high level tennis.

Today, I chat to player Jason Jung, where we discuss his ups and downs as a player, whether he would go back to play college tennis, looking back on his career so far, and we touch on why players are on the edge late on in the year. Before we get started, a shout out to our podcast partners, Asics.

I actually had stopped recording when I asked Jason who he was sponsored by, and he says Yonex for rackets and Lululemon for clothing. But Lululemon don't make shoes, and his go to shoes, which he buys himself, are asics.

He was briefly sponsored by Asics, and he says he hasn't looked back since. Their shoes were so great. Okay, here's Jason. Jason, welcome to the Functional Tennis podcast. How are you?

Good, how are you? Thanks for having me on.

I'm great, thanks. So let's find out a bit about you. You're american or you're living in Taiwan now. What's your background and situation?

Yeah, so I was born in the US to taiwanese parents. They.

They immigrated and, yeah, basically I grew up in, in the US and studied here, went to college and as a pro, I think it was my third year, third or fourth year on tour, and I switched to Taiwan and, yeah, so since. So pretty much the later half of my career, a good chunk of my career, I've been playing for Taiwan, and I do live in Taiwan now.

And why did you switch? Was it financial reasons or was it personal reasons or heritage?

It was a little bit of both my parents, they immigrated, so they've always instilled in me where. Where they come from and where I come from. So I feel a little bit of. I feel a little bit of the culture between both sides.

So that was a big part for me to have the opportunity to play for a smaller country and, yeah, definitely financial reasons as well. Coming out of college, I didn't have many sponsors. I don't think my career would be at this.

And would that would have made getting sponsors for you, local sponsors over there much easier. I know you've sort of said that, but is that what you're trying to say?

Yeah, definitely a little bit easier to be recognized and have, have the potential to get these sponsors. And also there's, there's different games. There's a big one called Asian Games, which is every four years.

And there's also one called university games, which is every two years. And there's, there's a couple other in Taiwan games where you can make money.

Which one did you win?

So I won. I won two.

So that was pretty cool. And then last year I won Asian Games, gold medal and double.

So that was, that was pretty cool because, I mean, there were some good players Bopana played and I mean, I think that's, that was pretty cool.

That's pretty cool. Well done there. And so let's go back. So we're going to go back and forward. We're going to go a bit to this year.

Now, you haven't been playing this year. I was asking you off air, like what's been up? And you're saying you've been injured.

So maybe tell us, how did the injury happen and when do you see yourself getting back on court?

Yeah, so it's been a really tough year and I've been pretty lucky with injuries up until this year. I first noticed it right before Davis Cup.

Taiwan was playing France, first time World Group qualifying and my back was starting to feel a little weird. And leading up to it every day it got worse but managed to play doubles and after that got it checked out and wasn't too bad.

So just took a break and started doing some light training and see if I could come back in a few weeks.

And then I decided to, while I had this short window, to take a look at some other body parts because I had been dealing with some hip issues from a couple years back. So just tried to take a look at those again and ended up being a little bit worse than I thought and opted to do surgery in June.

And yeah, that's where I am. It's arthroscopic hip surgery.

And I did get to talk to a few tennis players that have done hips, so that, that pushed me in that direction and they saw some success, so decided to do that. Even though this is later in my career, I think it's the best chance I have to get back.

So, yeah, currently recovering and hopefully I can make a push to come back at the start of next year.

And what sort of physical activity are you doing at the moment?

Yeah, so I've been on court a few times now and I'm slowly ramping up in the gym, so it's, it's definitely getting there. But you also don't want to push it too fast.

Yeah. Cause more setbacks, more time you take probably to get back to court, the better. Hips are definitely a popular one for tennis players, aren't they?

You see so many, like, especially once you hit, once you hit the thirties, you see a lot of hip problems. So yeah, hopefully get back to full steam. Better than ever, I hope, but looking back.

Okay, so 13 years.

13, yeah.

Well, and looking back, would you go the same route again? Would you do the same thing again or would you change anything?

I think if you asked me that a couple years, like earlier on, I would say no. But if I'm looking at it now, I do wish I would have stayed closer to home. I mean, in a warmer climate, I.

Would say, oh, yeah, sorry. Okay.

Home is I grew up in LA, okay. Outside of LA. And I played Southern California tennis where, you know, I play Steve Johnson, Sam Quarry, all the big guys.

And there's just a lot of good competition out here. And for me, I just wanted to, at the time, when I was 18, I just really wanted to get out of California and see something new.

And don't get me wrong, like, I enjoyed my experience at Michigan. I just think looking back, it would have been good in a warmer climate for pro development, I guess.

And just because we, my coach was here and I knew a couple people at UCLA and USC and there's always guys coming into town, especially before Indian Wells, you get some pros that will come into town and you can hit with top 50 guys. So I think that's pretty good exposure.

So you would. Yes, you'd go to college, you'd still go to college, but you just choose UCLA instead. Somewhere warmer instead of Michigan.

Yeah, I mean, not UCLA, but maybe. Maybe somewhere warmer.

And yeah, definitely go to college because at the time I was too skinny and I mean, we didn't have the funds to hire a proper team or anything like that. So it was the right decision to go to college.

Nice. That's good to hear. Where did Steve College. Steve Johnson was in. Was it USC or USC? You did quite well there. He did very well, but.

Okay, so that's good. So you hit. So you've graduated then. And then you hit the. You changed nationality shortly after and you went hard at it on the tour.

And for me, yeah, going in four years under the us flag was actually looking back was quite long because, you know, I was not making any money. I mean, I did get to, I think I was up to inside the 200s by then. But it's. It's a tough way to live, that's for sure.

Yeah. You're picking up scraps everywhere. So. And we're just going to move forward then.

You're paying for Taiwan now, but there's pressure on you to do well. And how are you feeling mentally?

But I still feel pretty good physically and mentally. But once I start playing tournaments, I'm. I don't know what's going on. I lose a couple first rounds and then a couple first rounds turns into 13.

So like year five or six and I'm just like, I've almost had enough because I'm not making a lot of money and getting tired of losing and. Yeah, I mean, up to that point in August, I was ready to. Ready to quit, actually.

You just had enough. What are you telling yourself? Are you saying, look, is there biddy, that saying, come on, I'm training here, it's going to come.

It has to come at some stage? Or is that belief even gone at that stage?

At that stage? It's yeah, it's. It's gone. And I'm also thinking that I played a few grand slams, and it has been a pretty good career already, just from.

From where I started and not too many sponsors. I had a few when I started, just private sponsors, but nothing. No real help. And I think I made a pretty good career out of it.

So that's where it was at the moment.

And up until August, I had a choice to make because I could still play us open qualifying, or I could play this university games, which was hosted in Taiwan, and everybody thought I was crazy to. At least my friends were one in particular, Evan King, who I went to college with.

He thought I was crazy to skip a grand slam and go play university games. But, yeah, I'm not sure.

I mean, I just decided to take a chance because it was something that I've never played and I thought it would be really cool. But I also knew that I had to prep my mind to just to be a little bit more relaxed and forgiving before going in, because even.

Even though the competition wasn't as strong as us open qualifying, I still needed to get my mind right. And lucky enough, I prepared for two, three weeks. And, yeah, that kind of changed the course of my career.

It's crazy when you do have these bad runs, then all of a sudden it all comes together and you take home the title. It must be an amazing feeling. You're like, finally.

Yeah, yeah.

And so then, was that a launch pad then, for more? What happened after that?

Then I was the one seed for that university games. And in hindsight, there were some really good players, like the one for Portugal. That's doing really well now.

Nuno borges.

Yes. So I played him in the semifinals, and obviously he was still at Mississippi State, but I. He was good at the time.

And, I mean, who knew that he would be this good, too? And who else was in the draw? Karazov was also playing and Saffilin was.

Was also playing, but those guys didn't make it to the semis, which is like, looking back, it's kind of crazy. But, yeah, I was. I was favored to win, but it was still tough. And I did not expect after winning that I would gain so much publicity in Taiwan.

And I was. Afterwards, I was getting free taxicab rides because everybody knew me and we had these. Because the games were so well received.

They had these parades around the city, and I had police officers coming up to me and saying they knew who I was. It was just like a overnight, a mini overnight. Success.

And I don't know how these top guys do it every week to week, how they stay composed, because that amount of fame is really hard to deal with. But anyways, yeah, I was like an overnight sense sensation in Taiwan, and that kind of boosted me to have.

Have sponsorship opportunities to keep my career going. So I was, like, taking this. Taking this all in and, okay, this is like a second win.

And a few days later, I went to a challenger in China, and my ranking was going down at that point, but I just started, just tried to ride the momentum and I won that challenger.

And from there, just kind of, you get these big sponsorships from Taiwan and from Taiwan companies, and then you just keep going, and the next year you make your career high. So, I mean, these things are crazy, but, yeah, somehow they work out in life.

It all comes together. Well, I think, obviously, I've spoken to a lot of agents, and for them, the dream is always like a nation or an indian player, you know?

Cause they know there's so many people over there, they don't have to become top player in the world. Like, it's a lot easier and it's a lot more lucrative. So for agents, they dream of a great player from Asia or India, but.

I wish.

I wish, actually, when I read that I had to double take, I was like, quite. I don't remember that. And that's like, oh, New York open.

Those are. Those are still in my dreams.

Yeah. You never know. You never know.

Yeah.

What, like that. Was that at ADP 250?

So it was.

Why did it just click for you there?

They were this. It was indoors on this, on this matte surface, and the bottom was like they put a wood, some sort of wood and then a mat over it, and it was.

It didn't bounce very high, and the court wasn't too fast either. And I just found it to be very playable for me. And I'm not sure. I mean, you.

You have these opportunities to play some top players, and I, you're not for me. I wasn't at that. I don't get those opportunities too often.

So you want to be loose and you want to be relaxed and nothing to lose, but at the same time, it's like, I don't have too many opportunities. You want to make the most out of your opportunity, so you get a little nervous, too.

And for me, a lot of times when I get really nervous, I actually play better, and that's what happened. And I played Tiafo in the round of. In the second round, and that year, I think he had just got to the quarterfinals, and I was able to beat him.

Yeah, I guess kind of the same thing. I wasn't expecting a big result, but I knew the court suited me well.

And that year I had to come through qualifying, but it was actually good because I got a couple matches under my belt, and, yeah, probably one of the best win the week, like, consecutive match wins for me, because I played Kevin Anderson first round, where he was. He was just coming back from a small injury. I think he might have been 80 in the world, but still a really good win. And then I beat.

Who did I beat Riley or Pelko when he was, I don't know, 30 and then, yeah, just couple good wins and you just gain that confidence.

You have the swagger then.

Yeah, I did.

Yeah, right. You're right. But. And when they. When they ran that term for two years, was it.

I think they did three years, maybe three years, tops.

And you're like, why did you stop that? Guys, I love, you know, I know.

That was my tournament.

Is there any determinants that then you research and go, okay, well, yeah, they're indoor. It's an indoor carpety with wood underneath. Would you research a determinant and say, okay, I need to get to Austria because they've won there.

I need to qualify there. Was there any other ones or something you looked into?

So, Taiwan. Taiwan has two big challengers a year, and that's sort of a similar surface, but I guess I've just never done as well at those. I'm not sure.

I mean, some tournaments just click, and I know there's some in Europe, and one year I was lucky enough to get into Vienna, the 500, and I qualified. Beat Kyle Edmund when he was. When he was, I don't know, maybe 40 in the world, and.

And played Medvedev when he was four in the world, so that was, that was really cool.

So, yeah, I mean, you try to look for those, but normally those ones in Europe, they're really hard to play because the, the entry cutoffs are super tough.

It's pretty high. Yeah. Must be such a difference when you're just out of, you know, you're just out of the cutoff zone all the time.

So you have to qualify and you know you're going to win one or two matches.

You know, you're going, the law of averages, you will win matches, but if you're a main draw, you just, you'll win a match, main draw or not, but because you have to qualify so much harder.

So the difference in those, I don't know, 30, 40 spots in the ranking chart is such a, it's, the delta is bigger than that because it's just so much harder.

Yeah, I mean, I would say if you're anywhere between 92 hundred, you're, or especially 90 and 150, that's such a hard schedule to plan because you don't want to play a full schedule of challengers and you want to give yourself some ATP shots, but then you got to go through qualifying and then if you lose a couple qualifying, you kind of lose some confidence and then you go back to challengers and then you lose a couple more. It can go pretty fast. So it's, it's such a tricky ranking.

And at the same time, if you're lucky enough to be in a country that'll give you some wild cards at that time.

I think especially this year, I've seen definitely during the grass season, some of the british players, you give them a couple wild cards and they, they take it and run and you know, that's it. I mean, their confidence is going.

I know you see it.

If you are top 80 and you get main draw in most tournaments, you win a match or two, a few, you nearly maintain your, you'll maintain that ranking and.

Yeah, but speaking of, you talk about, like, managing your schedule, we see, we're just recording this the week of the Shanghai Masters and we've seen a lot of players this week with some crazy outbursts between TFO with his cursing and more. And it turns out looking at the umpires actually made some good decisions. And it looks like the players just really tired.

They're pissed off, they're fed up, like, what's going on? What's going on there in your eyes? You know, these players, you know how they feel. You've been like, tell me, what is it?

Well, for one, I've had my fair share of, I wouldn't call mine outbursts compared to those. But yeah, I mean, the umpire, for us, we're playing for our livelihoods and this is how we make money.

And for umpires, they get a salary, maybe they get some bonus, but for sure they're getting paid. And it's just tough when you see a line call or how it changes momentum in the match and it's just tough.

And I mean, for that particular one, I did not see it. And social media is, can be tough sometimes because we, we only see one angle of it. So, I mean, it is possible he got a few warnings.

I mean, he must have had a few warnings beforehand. But just in general, umpires make mistakes, too, and sometimes those mistakes are costly.

Like it could be a fourth round at Grand Slam and an umpire makes a costly mistake and you don't make the quarterfinals. But eventually that's probably going to go more to the electronic line calling. So maybe that'll be better as what's.

Happening in Wimbledon next year. But just getting back to my point, I'm more trying to get to the fact it's the end of the year. Players are saying the schedule's too crazy.

Yeah.

Like, so they're a little bit more tired or a bit more snappy. They probably don't want to be there. So once something doesn't go their way, they're going to explode.

And that's what, to me, looks like what has happened.

Yeah, no, it's, it's a very long schedule and, and I wish more top players would talk about how long the schedule is because I know titiposs talked about it earlier, maybe just a few weeks ago, how the schedule is.

Yeah, I think it's unheard of that a sport goes eleven months out of the year and especially with these top guys, some of them that played labor cup, and they play all these exhibitions and they're trying to make money, too. And you fit those in between and you don't have a break.

But it's kind of, when you look from the outside, I'm on the outside. It's a money thing, really, because we don't hear the challenger guys. Challenger guys don't have enough money.

Do you know, they don't have enough money for the team and that the top guys, the ones that will, they'll play exhibitions in December when they're meant to be off for money. They play the Labour cup, they're getting money. They play other stuff for money. They don't have to do that.

I know you say they have, but they're already making a lot of money and I think it's all money driven. And if they took that away, they won't be playing as much. Sponsors aren't on your back to sponsors.

That, that's why you need to finish your schedule, because the sponsor says you need to play 25 tournaments a year. And what's stopping Tsitsipas saying, you know what, November, I'm not playing anything. I'm just going to take off.

I'm going to go on holidays with Paula. And what happens if a player decides to just check out for a next, like from the end, from now until January? Do they get fined?

Yeah.

So I know, I don't know what ranking you have to be, but there are mandatory tournaments that you have to play unless you have injury that you're actually, that's the proof of an injury. I think something like the Masters and the grand slams, you're. It's a mandatory event. But, yeah, I mean, you're right, they don't have to play those.

But at the same time, if I was in the position, I would, too, because you don't know how long you're going to play or you don't know when that opportunity is, so you want to make the most of it.

And on the flip side, for guys at challengers and below, yeah, we wouldn't complain as much, but we kind of have no choice because we need to try and pick up as many points as we can. And we're all tired. Everybody talks about it at challengers and I, and below, but it's just, I guess we're. How do I put this in? Nice.

I guess we're more of like the working class and we kind of have to do it. And even though it's tough, you know, we just, we just do it.

But, yeah, usually at the end of the year that's, you see a lot more injuries happen and, yeah, I guess that's why you see more guys kind of having these moments on court now because it's just, it's taking a toll throughout the whole year because I think a lot of people don't realize how hard it is to travel week to week.

And even though it seems like a good profession and you get to see the world and you get to be at all these places and nice events, but week to week, you still need to prepare your mind and body. There's a lot of work that goes into each week. And, you know, let's say you, you do really well make make a finals. That's tough physically.

And then let's say you lose first round.

That's tough mentally because, you know, you don't want to lose early, but then you still got to work and practice, and every day it's got to be, you know, intentional. So it's, it's not easy when you add it up to, like, week 30.

I can't. Look, I take one flight and your eating's gone, your training's gone, you're stiff because you're sitting on a plane, you've slept less.

That's just one flight. Control me off. And I know the top guys, the top five, maybe get a private jet if, you know. Yeah, but the rest don't. So, you know, you're at.

Whenever the next plane is out, it could be early in the morning, it could be late. So you don't even have control over that. And that can throw everything off. So I do understand it's pretty hard.

And if one flight control me off, imagine you guys taking 50, 60 flights a year. Like, that's absolutely crazy.

So, yeah, there must be a skill in that when you guys are, you know, you're going to an airport, you're likely to junk food and others and you're tired as well. That must be. I do think about it when you're doing like, that must be so hard just to control your, to control.

And then you say you get to the end of year, you're tired, and all of a sudden your barriers are down and you're just like, yeah, that's where you need the fitness trainer giving you a slap in the wrist, you know, have your shakes ready. But, yeah, I do get it. It's really, really hard.

Yeah. And one thing I would add is, so this year, I was put on this Olympic potential to play Olympics in Taiwan because I won Asia games last year.

So there was a high chance that I could have the chance to play Olympics. And I got put on this list for, I think it was Wada.

So basically you need to provide your whereabouts at all times because someone could show up to where you are and drug test you. And I think this is the case for top hundred players, I believe, and I think it's mentally challenging.

I'm sure they have people helping them, but it is really hard because you need to provide every little event that you're going to.

Like, you're going to the gym, okay, I'm going to be at this location from ten to two, and then I'm gonna go to my physios from three to four, and then you gotta list it. And if you're gonna take a. Take a drive across town for a couple hours, you gotta list that. So you gotta list everything.

And, I mean, this is the full year and, yeah, I did it for, I want to say three or four months this year, and I was. I was tired.

Well, like, yeah, I do get it. It's twelve months, isn't it? Where are you going to be next September? On the 12 September? I don't know where I'm going to.

I know that's why they plan tournament schedule, but, yeah, that must be really hard. I'm surprised they don't just put a gps tracker on the player and they can just check in with the player anywhere.

I know. Yeah.

But that's crazy. So speaking of, like, the difficulties with traveling and, you know, week to week, you're going to be a dad soon.

Yeah.

So it's going to get a bit tougher.

Yeah, I actually don't know how that's going to work out yet. We got our little one coming next month, and it doesn't seem like I'll come back this year, so I'll have some time to prepare, but we'll see.

And kudos to all those players with kids on the tour. I mean, it's quite tough. Used to see Verdasco towards the end of his career. He's got two kids and this whole family traveling with him.

And sure, maybe it'd be easier because, you know, he's done well in his career, but it's. It looks really hard.

You need some good help with you. You need to bring the entourage, and you need two bedrooms, and it's going to be an expensive one.

Yeah, but just a question I've been trying to ask a lot of players or coaches or people who come on the show is regarding the coach player relationship, and it's basically, in your eyes, who's the boss, the player or the coach?

I would say the player has to be the boss, because ultimately you're making the decision who to hire. I guess that's my case. Maybe if a player is younger, that's kind of not up to them. Maybe they have a parent making that decision.

But ultimately, I think if you, in my case, like, if you came out of college and you got to organize a team, I think the bosses is the player for sure.

And then it comes down to respect, I'm sure.

Yeah, I mean, definitely need to have a respect. And throughout my career, I've had a couple coaches and physios in it.

You really do need to get along with that coach or physio or trainer, because when you're on the road for x amount of weeks, it can be pretty tiring. You see each other every day and it can get pretty tiring.

I mean, you gotta figure out ways to respect each other and have fun with each other, but also there has to be some time in between as well where you're not together, or else it'll be too much.

And when you're not in the court, how do you de stress?

Yes. So I used to really love going into fancy supermarkets and just taking a stroll, because, I mean, I.

Anytime I'll see a new product, I'm just pretty interested in that. And I know at French open, there's a really nice, fancy market in the city, and I usually go to that every time I play. So that was a big one for me.

And a couple years ago, I bought an Xbox to try and not think about anything. Because sometimes when you're. When I'm watching a tv show, I'm still.

My mind still running, but when I found that I'm playing video games, I don't think about anything at all.

Is the Xbox in your travel bag? You're traveling with it every week?

It has been the last year, but it is. It is tough to carry around as well. So. Yeah, trying to. Yeah. Now the baby on the way, so, like, I don't know how you prioritize.

Everything and your wife's in the skincare business. Is this something you're going to get into after your career?

I'm hoping she sells the company one day and we can retire off of that. So I'll do anything to help her make it big.

Very nice. And. Sorry, one more question. Your future kid, will you encourage him to play tennis?

I do get that question a lot. And my first answer is, I don't want him to play. It's gonna be a boy. I don't want him to play tennis just because I know how hard it is.

But at the same time, if, you know, he's gonna be around tennis and if that's what he wants to do, I mean, that's kind of my expertise, so I can point him in the right direction. So, I mean, I guess I'm okay with it.

And you'll have plenty of time because you have sold the business, so you'll have no excuse.

Exactly.

I love it. I love it.

No.

Jason, thanks for jumping on best of luck and getting back to full health and hope to see you back in court early next year.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me on.