Kim Takes His Game to Tennis Academy

H. Andrew Kim owns a manufacturing company in Los Angeles, so he’s used to making difficult business decisions. But none were as agonizing as the one he made last month to send his 16-year-old son, Kevin Kim, to Palmer Tennis Academy in Tampa, Fla.

“It was tough,” said Andrew Kim, also a commissioner for the state athletic commission. “I taught him the game. I know how to motivate him. But he’s at an age where I have to let him go and do his own thing. I can’t keep him. It was tough.”

It wasn’t only tough, it was expensive. A year’s worth of tuition and living expenses at Palmer costs $32,000. A year at Sunny Hills High, where Kevin Kim would have been a junior, costs nothing.

“When I found out what it costs, I was virtually flabbergasted,” Andrew Kim said.

Kim had planned on a sponsor paying his son’s way to Palmer, but the sponsor backed out at the last minute and left him holding the bill. The semester had already begun at Palmer and Kim had only a few days to make his decision.

“It was hardest for my wife,” Andrew Kim said. “Her life revolves around Kevin. We thought he’d stay here and graduate from Sunny Hills.

“This goes against everything that is important to our (Korean) culture, families staying together. But our position is, we wanted him to get an education, and Palmer has a great reputation as an academy.”

Kevin Kim, the nation’s top-ranked player in the boys’ 16 division, said he began considering Palmer this summer after his first-round loss in the U.S. Open junior tournament.

“That woke me up,” Kim said Monday from his apartment in Tampa, Fla. “I thought about all these players out there, and that I’m not the greatest player, that I need improvement.”

Kim said he didn’t believe improvement would come as quickly in California.

“Eric Lin is in college (at UCLA) and (top-ranked junior) Geoff Abrams is in Newport Beach, so there’s not a lot to play with,” Kim said. “Here, I know what I’m doing everyday, play tennis and go to school. It’s not bad really, it’s what I need now.”

Still, Kim said, it’s not easy leaving home at 16.

“Your personal life is not high up there,” he said. “It’s tough. I still keep in touch with my friends. I thought about this for a long time, until the day before I left. All of sudden I’m washing my own clothes and I’m eating somebody else’s cooking. It’s not as good as my mom’s.”

On the other hand, Kim said, his tennis appetite is being fed. He has played Daniel Nestor, ranked No. 170 in the world, twice in the last week and he is practicing about four hours a day.

But Sam Olson, who has coached Kim the last three years, doesn’t necessarily think a tennis academy will be the best thing for Kim’s game.

“The best thing for Kevin is individual training, not group training,” Olson said. “That’s what you get in those academies. I’ve also heard that Kevin’s the best junior there, and that’s not going to help him.”

Olson believes Kim’s tennis career would be better served if he tried playing the professional circuit for a while.

“I think he’s ready,” said Olson, who runs a tennis academy at the Balboa Bay Racquet Club. “In tennis, unless you get used to playing at a certain level, you will never be able to play at that level. After two years on the tour, he’d be at that level. After two years at the academy, where will he be?”

Andrew Kim isn’t sure, but he would prefer that his son finish high school. Kim’s stance is similar to that of Richard Williams, father of 14-year-old tennis phenom Venus Williams.

Williams thinks his daughter is too young to play professional tennis, but he has decided to respect his daughter’s wishes and allow her to join the tour.

“Kevin is too mature for me to stand in his way, but I will advise him to finish school,” Andrew Kim said. “It’s been my teaching to him to get an education, because money is not that important in life. I think he’ll stand by my teaching.”

Kevin Kim is leaving his options open.

“Hopefully, I’ll be here for two years,” he said. “It depends on how good I get.”

Sunny Hills Coach Steve White was hoping to have Kim on his team this year, but he wasn’t shocked by Kim’s departure.

“What’s really important to Kevin is tennis, it’s not the prom or the typical things kids his age are into,” said White, who has won two consecutive Southern Section titles with Kim playing No. 1 singles.