July Feature - Hmong Cultural Tennis Tournament
The Hmong Cultural Fourth of July Tennis Tournament happens annually in St. Paul, Minnesota every summer. This year, the tournament celebrated its 20-year anniversary! We caught up with some of the masterminds behind the tournament, Koua Yang, Ricky Moua, and Vilai Vang, to learn more.
Koua Yang is the founder of the Hmong Cultural Tennis Tournament and a USTA Northern board member. While teaching social studies and coaching tennis at Harding High School, he realized that ethnic communities were not getting enough opportunities to learn tennis from qualified, experienced coaches, and find match play that was fun, social and competitive.
“When I created this tournament, it was all about community. I wanted to create a community, not just in tennis, but also within the Hmong community,” Koua states.
The Hmong July Fourth Tournament started in the early 1980s as a festival celebrating the homecoming of many Hmong people back to Minnesota. It was an opportunity for them to get together and compete in various athletic events.
In the early 2000s, Koua Yang had a vision to make the tournament more accessible and welcoming to young players. He started his own tournament in 2004. Initially, it was held at Arlington High School and had only one open singles division with 40-50 participants.
This year, the tournament was held at Harding High School and Eastview Recreation Center. There were 110 participants from all over the country and has grown to become more inclusive, offering a 4.0, 4.5, doubles, female, and junior division. Previously, the tournament was exclusively Hmong but has expanded to include other Southeast Asian, Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Chinese communities. In the doubles division, one player is required to be Southeast Asian, while their partner can be any ethnicity.
Vilai Vang is the Tennis Director for St. Paul Urban Tennis. He grew up around the tournament and enjoys the competitiveness, as well as the experience for young players.
“It gives a lot of our young juniors a chance to see what our communities capabilities are, the level they can achieve with hard work. I think that’s the thing that stood out to me the most was I saw these guys that were really good, and they look just like me which means I can get there one day too.” Vilai adds.
Ricky Moua is a tournament director for the Hmong Cultural Tennis Tournament, as well as a player and coach. He started helping out with the tournament about four years ago. Ricky started playing tennis as a sophomore in high school, where he was coached by Koua Yang. Moua notes that the tournament is something he looks forward to annually and enjoys the competitive and social aspects.
“You literally don’t see players in a year, 8, 9 months, and then they come back out in the summer and you get to catch up. To see all of my younger players come back and play, it’s nice to see them come out, to catch up, to socialize and see how everyone is doing,” Moua says.
The goal of the tournament is to continue to grow the game of tennis by making it inclusive and accessible. They are passionate about supporting junior players and making it a good experience for generations to come. Since the tournament began, the junior division has been free to register. They also hope to increase the number of female participants in the future. The female division is also free for participants to register.
“We want tennis to be a lifetime sport, whether you’re starting at two, sixteen or sixty-five. We want to continue to make sure that people are still being active, healthy, and social. The mental health piece is really important, getting together with people, not being isolated, and getting a chance to connect,” Koua adds.
View matches from this year's tournament here!
Save the date! The 2025 Hmong Cultural Tennis Tournament will be held July 4-6, 2025.
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