For ardent fans of BTS, it is no secret that J-Hope is the original in-house tennis enthusiast of the group.
He was the only BTS member with experience in playing tennis before all the members got to try it during a Run BTS episode in 2021. BTS were taught by professional mentors, and though the episode’s winner turned out to be Jin, J-Hope impressed both his members and the coach with his stance, grip, and overall impressive performance from the beginning.
J-Hope has also mentioned on multiple occasions that if he were not a part of the entertainment industry, he probably would have pursued tennis as a profession.
I’ve liked tennis since I was in elementary school, so maybe if I didn’t follow my dream to become a singer, I would be a tennis player. A really cool tennis player like Chung Hyeon.
— J-Hope, SBS
But he also makes it clear that he was never exceptionally well at the sport. And his members love teasing him with the story of him winning the bronze medal at a tennis match in which only three teams participated.
omg Joon is such a lil snake!!
Jin just wanted to say Hobi got a
bronze medal playing tennis but he
just had to go and… lmaaao I can’t pic.twitter.com/iTPlas3i5z— RMPICS⁷ (@RMPICS_twt) February 25, 2020
However, there is another hilarious story behind J-Hope’s short-lived tennis career, and it lies at the very root of it.
In an old interview, going back to BTS’s debut year, 2013, J-Hope shared the amusing story of how he got his start in tennis. He said that he started playing when he was in elementary school and continued it till the 6th grade.
Tennis, that I played from when I was in elementary 4th to 6th year. I had a bit of a unique start…
— J-Hope
But initially, he had no intentions of learning the sport. When his teacher asked the class if anyone wanted to learn tennis, J-Hope was stretching with both his hands up. His teacher took it as an enthusiastic participation, which resulted in him finally joining the class.
Our teacher asked the class, ‘Who wants to play tennis?,’ and I was coincidentally raising both of my arms to stretch. She mistook that as me volunteering, so I ended up joining (laugh).
— J-Hope
What started as a misunderstanding, however, turned out to be a hobby J-Hope grew to like a lot. In the old interview, he said, “I started playing tennis again this summer, and it was refreshing and fun!”
