![Lee Hyung-taik. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/14/rcv.YNA.20260114.PYH2026011418130001300_P1.jpg)
Former national tennis player Lee Hyung-taik has revealed he lost prize money equivalent to the price of four Gangnam apartments through a series of failed investments.
The revelations came on MBN's talk show "Dongchimi," which aired Saturday under the theme "Life is decided in extra time."
Lee said he got into the board game cafe business — a craze in the early 2000s — thinking it would give him a steady side income so he could focus on his athletic career without financial worry.
In his 20s at the time, Lee poured all of his prize money — enough to buy four Gangnam apartments — into the venture in cash, handing day-to-day operations to a manager while he concentrated on tennis. "The money didn't come in the first month. They said it would start coming in the next month once things settled, but it kept not coming," he said. When his wife went to check on the business, she found that even the key money had vanished. The cafe eventually morphed into a red ginseng company, then a stem cell company, before shutting down entirely. When fellow guests asked whether he had signed a contract, Lee replied, "Back then, I didn't know about things like that" — leaving everyone even more exasperated.
Lee recounted visiting a board game cafe in Apgujeong-dong and being struck by how well it was doing. "No one was drinking — they were just playing games. This is it, I thought," he said, adding that he opened his own near Konkuk University, his alma mater. He said he trusted the manager and paid little attention because he was busy training, only realizing something was wrong when his wife investigated and found the business had completely disappeared. "I was in my 20s and just didn't know better. Everything went in as cash," he said.
Lee also described a second painful investment experience involving a Gangnam officetel.
He said he had wanted to collect wolse from a Gangnam officetel, expecting real estate prices to rise, but handed a signed check to an acquaintance who accompanied him — because, he said, there was a lot of talk at the time about celebrities speculating in real estate. He later discovered that the amount he paid could have bought two units; the acquaintance had purchased one for himself and registered the other in Lee's name. "I didn't look into it and rushed in," he said of the outcome. After those experiences, he handed almost all financial decisions to his wife. "I just listen to my wife now and have given her full authority," he said.
Lee made history as the first Korean player to reach the round of 16 at the US Open men's singles in 2000, a feat he repeated at the same tournament in 2007, helping spark a tennis boom in a country where the sport had little following. Since retiring in 2009, he has run a tennis academy and pursued a career as a coach.
min3654@heraldcorp.com
