Park’s Place Now Firmly Cemented as a USTA Official

With the same dogged intensity and determination as he pursued his Ph.D., SangGyu Park is now laser-focused on his quest to climb the USTA officiating ladder. The Claremont-based official works full-time calling lines and chairing matches at tournaments coast-to-coast, continuing a second career built on discipline, precision, and global experience as he works his way toward the sport’s highest levels.

The South Korean native recently returned home from Austin, Texas, where he worked the WTA 125 tournament featuring  Torrance’s Iva Jovic as the top seed and eventual semifinalist. 

Park’s journey into officiating tennis began in 2012, shortly after completing his Ph.D. in Business Administration at aSSIST University in Seoul, where he specialized in international business strategy. 

He originally moved to the United States landing in Philadelphia in 2013 and settled in Southern California in 2015 when his wife, Jewel Lee, accepted a faculty position as a professor at Cal-State Fullerton. He thought he would continue in business communication, until officiating captured his full attention.

“This is what I’m doing full-time now,” Park explained. “I don’t have a plan to return to my work in international business communication. I’m blessed that I can do this financially and have the time so I’m going to see how far I can take it.”

Park estimates he spends 200 days a year at tennis events as he continues his journey to achieve White Badge designation within the International Tennis Federation (ITF), a milestone that would allow him to one day officiate professional events worldwide.

Since joining USTA officiating in 2014, Park has built an impressive resume. He has worked 68 ITF professional wheelchair chair matches, 182 professional line-umpire days—including WTA 500, ATP/WTA Challenger, ITF, and USTA events—120 USTA chair matches and 200 roving days, 128 ITA chair matches and 132 ITA roving days, and 960 UTR Pro Series chair matches. 

In December, he will head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to chair matches at the prestigious Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships, one of the largest junior events in the world.   

Park said he finds officiating across levels, from junior development to professional tours, both challenging and rewarding. “In the juniors we try to educate the kids,” Park said. “They are so energetic and you have to calm them down at times. In the pros they are more mature and they know the rules. It’s very interesting dealing with the different levels of players.”

In another first, Park was one of the Southern California USTA officials working the US Open in September and was blown away by everything the year’s final Grand Slam had to offer. Joining fellow SoCal officials Teri Cohn, Selwyn Brereton, David Martinez, Maureen Regan, Val Davidson, Mark Caleb, and Bob Weibe, Park said, “It’s really like a festival,” Park said. “It’s the epicenter of tennis. From the players to the officials, even the fans. It’s the perfect fit for tennis.”

Park’s introduction to tennis came during the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, when the tennis venue was built just blocks from his childhood home. Although he knew little about the sport as a teenager, his curiosity and eagerness to help led him to volunteer as a greeter and security guard, quickly learning the ropes inside the stadium.

“I didn’t know much about tennis before then,” said Park. “We were an under-developed country so that was a huge test and we really saw a momentum shift as that was the first big international event Seoul hosted. I went in and just wanted to be a part of it.”

Now fluent in English and Korean and conversational in Japanese, Park continues to represent the global side of officiating. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., the Parks were looking to get their toddler daughter into a sporting activity. “We tried all the sports, and she really liked soccer so we would spend a lot of our time at the fields,” Park said.

Although she no longer plays, Park enjoyed the physical aspect of officiating soccer games and soon got his advanced referee badge for the youth divisions U8 through U19.

“It’s a very demanding and physical sport with 45 minutes a half and so for 90 minutes you have to keep running,” said Park, who works soccer games on the weekend when he is not on the tennis court. “In tennis you are sitting in a chair and the focus is on the ball. In soccer you are watching the player who doesn’t have the ball and the plays as they develop.”

But he said there are similarities also. “The commonality is the decision-making and the judgement calls,” Park explained.

An ardent learner, Park said there is something in his makeup and mindset that draws him to officiating. “It’s about rules and I like to read the rules and take care of the situation based on the rules,” he said. “Even though I’ve memorized the rule, every day there is a different situation regardless of the different levels of tennis from the juniors to the pros. This is what reminds me of why I like it so much.”

During USTA Officiating Appreciation Week, we salute and celebrate officials like SangGyu Park, whose passion and love for the game inspire others who someday hope to follow that same path.