‘He was a second dad to me’: Hon pays emotional tribute to late coach

An emotion-charged Priscilla Hon has paid tribute to her late coach and “second dad” Anthony Richardson after he lost his year-long cancer battle.

Hon played her Adelaide International first-round match on Tuesday, barely 24 hours after finding out about Richardson’s death and knowing the result was crucial to her Australian Open wildcard hopes.

The 24-year-old Queenslander was walking into The Drive courts with fellow Australian tennis players Kim Birrell and Lizette Cabrera when they found out the devastating news.

Priscilla Hon. Credit: Eamon Gallagher

But Hon was bracing for the worst when she found out about a month ago that Richardson’s melanoma had spread to his brain.

“He was my coach from [age] 10 to 16, and he was a second dad to me and I basically saw him more than my own family, so it’s been really hard,” she told The Age.

“We knew it was bad, and I think it’s four weeks now since we found out that it had got to his brain, so we knew it was coming but when it happens, it never feels real.

“He came into the tennis two weeks ago and seeing him there – he was outside the court and hadn’t even said hi to us, but I started bawling.”

Hon and fellow players spent an hour that day with Richardson, a Tennis Australia National Academy coach, and planned to meet him for lunch the next week, only for him to be too unwell.

“He had to go into hospital but then came out and got to have Christmas Eve with his family. They celebrated the night before because they weren’t sure he could make it,” she said.

“That was kind of the last day he was at home before he went back into hospital.

“He always thinks about everyone first. He constantly smiles. I feel like I smile a fair bit, but he does it like 100 times more. Even when he came into the tennis two weeks ago; he’s constantly trying to make everyone feel comfortable and still joking around and not wanting anyone to feel awkward around him.

“He’s even offering to teach one of the younger girls how to re-string, and he doesn’t have much time left [at that stage], so that just says a lot about him.”

“He’s even offering to teach one of the younger girls how to re-string, and he doesn’t have much time left [at that stage], so that just says a lot about him.”

Priscilla Hon on her late coach Anthony Richardson

Hon made a bright start against American qualifier Claire Liu, but eventually lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a match that went beyond two hours.

She is now resigned to not receiving the final Australian Open wildcard, believing it will instead go to Birrell, but will re-group and try to qualify if that happens.

“It’s something you try not to think about, but it’s always there – and you see the Australian wildcard selectors sitting there, judging you,” Hon said.

“I tried not to look over in their direction and just block that out. It would have been a good opportunity for me to win that, to get it, but it is what it is. I can’t change it now.”

Australian Rinky Hijikata also bowed out in Adelaide on Tuesday after threatening to cause a significant boilover, going down to Canadian star Denis Shapovalov 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.