A perk of being in a relationship with a fellow tennis player of the same gender: you can essentially travel the world with each other for company.

The life of a young tennis player is usually a lonely one, travelling alone to remote places in the world to compete in lower-tier tournaments acting as stepping stones to the professional tour. The not-so-glamorous side of the life of a professional tennis player...

At the very least, Tiffany and I had each other in all our travels, playing in the same tournaments and sightseeing together in our free time. Concentrating fully on tennis had truly enabled us to take our games to another level, Tiffany developing greater aggressiveness in her play, while I worked a lot on my footwork, taking leaves out of each other's books.

Our efforts undoubtedly paid off, though, we managed to defeat many experienced, battle-hardened pros, who while admittedly not at the same level as the top pros, were tricky opponents all the same.

We had both won a few lower-tier events apiece, regularly meeting in the latter stages of tournaments, our matches being staggeringly even most of the time, either one of us eventually managing to find an extra gear to eke out the win.

We were both ranked in the top 150 in the world rankings now, Tiffany at 126 and myself at 132 and the tournament director of the tennis tournament in Seoul felt that we merited wild cards into our every first professional tournament, also the last event on the tennis calendar for the year.

It was a special occasion, my friends and family had come to watch the matches and it only became even more eagerly anticipated when I was drawn against the top seed and World No. 3, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the very first round. A prodigiously talented youngster herself a few years ago, she had taken her game to the next level, winning Wimbledon in June.

The match was a sell-out, the stadium filled to its maximum capacity, yet strangely I felt no nerves. No one expected me to win, surely, all the pressure was on her. It was a hard-fought battle from the very start, our games being so similar, trying to gain the upper hand in a rally before going for winners. I was playing really well, managing to stay with her for the most part, but in the tiebreak we contested, her experience came to the fore as she swept it 7 points to 2, my level having dropped tremendously. With the first set in the bag, she visibly relaxed and began going for her shots with more conviction, my defence couldn't handle the barrage of missiles coming my way and she got the win 7-6(2), 6-2.

Despite the loss, it wasn't all doom and gloom. I had proved that I had the capabilities to compete at the highest level and it was nice to hear Belinda's encouraging words in her post-match speech. "Sorry Korea, I had to take out your girl, but she's got a great future ahead of her, you're gonna be in for quite the ride with her."

Indeed, she was one of the nicest and classiest women on the tour. However, she wasn't exactly a desirable opponent, yet I had the massive fortune of having her on the opposite side of the net once again, this time in doubles. However, Tiffany had lost in the quarterfinals earlier in the day to Belinda's partner, Kristina Mladenovic; we were both hungry for revenge.

With the crowd firmly on our side, we played lights-out tennis, with Tiffany really stepping up, playing one of the best matches she had ever played by my side. Everything was clicking, our serves found their mark, our groundstrokes whizzed by their flailing arms and rackets, we got the job done unexpectedly quickly, 6-3, 6-4.

With the biggest hurdle out of our way, we rode on the wave of self-belief following our breakthrough win, we delighted the home crowd by claiming the doubles title.

Things were going rather swimmingly at the moment, I had been rather worried that our gamble to quit school would backfire, but looking at how admirably we performed on the big stages against the big guns, I was confident we stood a chance against any player in the world.

Experience, so important in any sport, was only going to come as our careers progressed, I was really looking forward to the new year. But of course, first came a much-needed break--alone with Tiffany, a trip to the city of love, Paris...no training, no parents, no restrictions...wasn't it a perfect, ripe scenario simply dripping with romantic possibilities?