Wesleyan’s Eudice Chong has a year of college left. She wants to be a sports psychologist, but that will have to wait. When she graduates, all her energy will go into trying to make it as a professional tennis player.

“Once I start working, I know it will be so hard to begin training again and compete at a high-enough level, so what better time to try out the professional tour than right out of college?” Chong said by email last week from her native Hong Kong. “I don’t want to regret not even attempting it because I’ll be working for most of my life anyway, but tennis isn’t going to wait for me.”

Chong has played some pro tournaments during breaks from school “but I’ve never played full time because I’ve always had academics as more of a priority.”

At 21, she already has had an illustrious collegiate career heading into her senior season. She is a three-time NCAA Division III singles champion, the first woman in history to accomplish the feat at that level. She is a two-time NESCAC player of the year and is coming off an 18-1 season in which she went 13-0 in singles. Chong was named the Division III Honda Athlete of the Year nominee for the third consecutive time in tennis.

Her most notable accomplishments may be as a singles player, but Chong has had a growing affinity for doubles. This year, she teamed with sophomore Victoria Yu to win her first NCAA doubles title, also the first for the school.

Chong became the first Division III women’s player in 13 years to win both titles.

“Doubles has always been more fun for me because I know there’s someone right next to me giving me support and vice versa,” said Chong, in Hong Kong for the summer. “The idea of working together and winning as a team has always pushed me to play better, knowing that I am not just playing for myself but for someone else as well.”

An Intercollegiate Tennis Association first-team All-American in singles and doubles, Chong’s highest WTA singles ranking was 758 and highest doubles ranking 752, both achieved last year.

WTA tour events are open to anyone who qualifies based on ranking points, pro or amateur. Players will often compete at the lowest-level events called Futures, where they can accumulate ranking points and qualify for larger tournaments.

Many top NCAA players such as Chong compete in WTA events, primarily in the summer when school is out of session. College players can keep NCAA eligibility by not accepting prize money.

To get even better for a professional run, Chong has been focusing on quicker feet.

“She’s going to leave nothing on the table in terms of the pursuit of her tennis, and if that’s a year or two or three or four, or if she has success, much longer than that, she has the education and the foundation for the career she’ll come back to. It’s only a matter of when,” Wesleyan coach Mike Fried said.

Chong figures sports psychologist might be a natural for her.

“Because I’ve been submerged in tennis for so much of my life, I understand very well both the physical and mental barriers an athlete goes through,” Chong said. “And I am hoping to bring the knowledge I have with my experience to the plate as well.”

Chong’s parents are tennis enthusiasts. While she has pictures of herself holding a racket when she was just a year old, Chong didn’t actually start taking lessons until she was 7.

“I took private lessons until I was about 10 years old, and honestly, I hated it so much,” Chong said. “I’d play an hour a week, but because I was playing one-on-one with a coach, I absolutely loathed it and thought it was so boring. It wasn’t until my coach signed me up for group practices with the Hong Kong Tennis Association did I really begin to enjoy the game.”

During the short break, Chong switched to swimming and made her middle school team. Swimming still is a way to relax and recover.

After an impressive career at the International Christian School in Hong Kong, Fried heard about Chong through a friend. He first saw Chong play during a recruiting showcase at Yale the summer before her senior year of high school.

“It was very fortunate, something clicked when we met and her parents were with her when we spent time together,” Fried said. “They got to see the [Wesleyan] campus and felt really excited and comfortable with what we were trying to do with the tennis program. And, then, she became the engine for doing all of that.”

Chong’s individual success is well-documented but she seeks one more thing.

“Definitely winning the NCAAs as a team,” she said. “As much as individual accomplishments matter, the team portion, in my opinion, is more important. Being national champions as a team would be a dream come true and we’re all working extremely hard to hopefully make this goal a reality next year.”