Before Milan, where Hyeon Chung won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals last November, and before Melbourne, where the South Korean reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final in January, Chung showed his tour-leading clutch tennis in Incheon, South Korea.

At the 2014 Asian Games, Chung and countryman Yong-kyu Lim faced four match points in the doubles semi-finals, and much was on the line for the pairing.

Lose and they, like all South Korean males, would still be subject to almost two years of mandatory military service. But win the gold medal, and they’d be exempt.

“For Asians it’s really big tournament… especially for Koreans because Koreans have to go to the Army. It’s a big thing,” Chung told ATPWorldTour.com.

He and Lim came back from 4/6 in the second set tie-break and 7/9 in the Match Tie-break to reach the final, Chung said. As fans cheered after every point and sometimes even shouted and exhaled after every shot, the South Koreans won the country’s first tennis gold medal in 28 years.

“I think the Asian Games started [it for me],” said Chung, who was 18 at the time and eventually served only four weeks in the military. “Because when I’m in the Asian Games, I’m really happy and I had many good, positive things so that I can win Next Gen last year, I can make Grand Slam semis.”

No one has played sweaty-palm situations better than Chung during his big runs and during the past 52 weeks, according to his “Under Pressure” rating on the Infosys ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS. The statistic is based on break points converted, break points saved, tie-breaks won and deciding sets won, and Chung’s 247.6 rating is almost a point better than Juan Martin del Potro’s (third, 246.7) and more than two points better than Roger Federer’s (fifth, 245.5).

“He is able in the big moments to knuckle down and not think too much about what the end result is, and he’s able to execute really well in the big moments, which is a skill in itself, and I think that’s why the results show in the stats,” Neville Godwin, his coach, told ATPWorldTour.com.

Watch Chung’s My Story

Chung will look to use those skills for the first time in more than two months as he returns this week at the BB&T Atlanta Open. A right ankle injury that took longer than expected to rehab has kept him out of play since 8 May when he lost in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open.

At the time, Chung had made at least the quarter-finals at seven of his eight tournaments and was in sixth place in the ATP Race To London.

But, after missing 11 weeks, he has fallen to the 17^th spot in the Race and trails eighth-placed Kevin Anderson by 1,440 points.

“Obviously I would have liked him to play on the clay, and definitely on the grass as well because he was having such a great run and obviously in contention to go to London… It could be a bridge too far now,” Godwin said.

Read More: Americans Lead The Way In Atlanta

“The goal for the rest of the year is to really just stay healthy and keep building on the things that we started working on at the beginning of the year.”

Chung played in Atlanta last year for the first time, falling to #NextGenATP American Tommy Paul in three sets. Hard courts have been Chung’s best surface on tour. The 6’2” right-hander has won almost 60 per cent of his matches on hard courts (53-36), compared to 58 per cent of his matches overall (71-52), according to his FedEx ATP Win/Loss Record.

“I’m just trying to move the legs, and I’m just trying to play my best. Breathe… Stay calm. Trying to think about positive things,” Chung said of playing under pressure.

Not everyone, however, has been so enamored with Chung’s clutch play. Indian Divij Sharan and his partner Yuki Bhambri lost the four match points against Chung/Lim at the Asian Games. Had Sharan/Bhambri reached the final, they would have faced another Indian team, guaranteeing their home nation a gold medal in tennis.

Sharan, who, with Kiwi Artem Sitak, is the top doubles seed in Atlanta, has seen video clips of the match. But he struggles to describe how a shot at gold slipped away from them.

“That was obviously a really, really close match,” Sharan told ATPWorldTour.com, “and I guess looking back, I just think, that was a tough one, just a match they had to win. It was just crazy.”

Nick Kyrgios doesn’t have to think too far back to remember “The Last Time” he played well at the BB&T Atlanta Open. The Aussie beat home favourite and four-time Atlanta titlist John Isner to win the 2016 title.

Kyrgios, after missing the tournament last year because of injury, is back at Atlantic Station to go for his second title of the season (Brisbane) and fifth overall. The Aussie spoke with ATPWorldTour.com about “The Last Time”…

I missed a flight?
I was with my agent, John Morris, and we were sitting at the gate. We were just watching Facebook videos… It was boarding, we were watching [videos], and we completely missed the flight. But I can’t remember where it was or where we were flying from. I’m pretty organised like that. I don’t miss too many flights.

I lost something important?
Every day I lose my wallet, I don’t know where I place it. I’m pretty forgetful like that… I always find it, though.

More “Last Times”: Djokovic | Roddick | Chung

I strung a tennis racquet?
Never. I’ve never strung a racquet in my life… I have tried. Terrible… Not good. It took me hours… Three, four hours. I just stopped. I’ve never strung a racquet again.

Did you finish it?
No… That was 10 years ago.

Watch: Kyrgios Returns To Atlanta

I cooked for myself and others?
I don’t cook that often. I’m a decent cook, I guess. I know how to make like eggs and stuff. Not for a while, though. I can’t even remember.

Flashback: Kyrgios Picks His NBA Dream Team

I met a childhood idol?
I didn’t really have an idol, but I looked up to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga when I was a kid. I played him at the Australian Open recently.

I shared a hotel room with another player?
Pretty recently. I share with my doubles partner Matt Reid pretty much all the time… We’re good friends, he’s a good companion, he’s pretty good to room with, he’s easy. He snores a little bit from time to time, but that’s it.

It was a strong day for home players at the BB&T Atlanta Open, with five of the seven American players in action on Tuesday emerging victorious.

Next Gen ATP Finals contender Frances Tiafoe notched his first win of the North American hard-court season , beating Marius Copil 6-4, 6-4 in 61 minutes. The Delray Beach Open champion converted the only two break points of the match and dropped just four points behind his first serve (31/35) to advance.

Fifth-seeded Tiafoe will meet qualifier Alex Bolt or Marcos Baghdatis in the second round.

Fellow #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz also scored a 6-4, 6-4 victory, beating Dell Technologies Hall Of Fame Open finalist Ramkumar Ramanathan. Fritz fired 36 winners, including 10 aces, and didn’t face a break point throughout the 64-minute first-round clash.

“I felt pretty good,” Fritz said. “I played solid all the way through… I was able to put a really good game together in the second set to break and [I played] a solid game in the first set and that is all you really need to do.”

Fritz will play Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung for a place in the quarter-finals. “It will be fun. We’ve practised and I really like playing Chung,” Fritz said. “I like his ball… and I think it will be a really good match and I’m excited for it.”

Ryan Harrison recovered from a set down to defeat James Duckworth 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-1. The eighth seed won 75 per cent of first-serve points and saved four of five break points.

Atlanta resident Donald Young was forced to save a match point to book his spot in the second round. The wild card recovered from a set down, withstanding 30 aces, to edge Ivo Karlovic 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(6). Noah Rubin also progressed, beating Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-3, 6-4.

“I felt good coming into this [match],” Rubin said. “I played good in qualifying and… I thought I played solid and kept my composure the whole time.”

Seventh seed Mischa Zverev broke the unbeaten start for the Americans with his 6-3, 6-7(8), 6-3 victory over Tim Smyczek. The German fired 11 aces on his way to a second-round meeting with Mikhail Youzhny. The Russian breezed past US wild card Emil Reinberg 6-2, 6-0 and announced he would retire from the sport after this year’s St. Petersburg Open.

Sixth seed Jeremy Chardy scored a debut win in Atlanta, landing 15 aces in a 6-4, 6-3 win over 2015 quarter-finalist Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania. The Libema Open runner-up will face Cameron Norrie in the second round. Norrie cruised to victory against Malek Jaziri 7-5, 6-0.

Did You Know?
Seven of the eight previous editions of the BB&T Atlanta Open have been won by home players. Defending champion John Isner owns a record four titles, with Andy Roddick (2) and Mardy Fish (1) also enjoying success. Australian Nick Kyrgios (2016) is the only player from outside the United States to lift the trophy.

Eighth seed Feliciano Lopez began his campaign for a second trophy at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad on Tuesday with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Federico Delbonis of Argentina in 89 minutes. The 36-year-old Spaniard, who beat Robin Haase for the 2016 title, will now prepare to meet Spaniard Oriol Roca Batalla or Italian Paolo Lorenzi.

Elsewhere, Croatian lucky loser Viktor Galovic recorded just his second tour-level victory to knock out fifth seed Haase of the Netherlands 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in 88 minutes for a second-round encounter against #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. Haase finished runner-up at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament in 2013 (l. to Youzhny) and 2016 (l. to Lopez).

Facundo Bagnis, an Argentine qualifier, who is currently No. 177 in the ATP Rankings, hit 11 aces and recovered from 1-3 down in the second set to beat sixth-seeded Portuguese Joao Sousa 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 54 minutes. He now awaits the winner of a wild-card clash between Swiss Marc-Andrea Huesler or 2010 champion Nicolas Almagro of Spain.

Did You Know?
Lopez has a 24-10 record at the event, which was first held in 1898.