He began playing collegiate tennis in 1998, for Stanford University.[3] The American was a member of the championship winning Stanford sides of 1998 and 2000.[3] In the latter year, he also won the NCAA Division 1 singles title and was an All-American.[3] He and teammate Geoff Abrams formed the top-ranked doubles team in the nation in 2000, and were named the ITA National Doubles Team of the Year.[4] He was inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.[5]
ATP Tour
Given a wildcard entry, Kim made his first Grand Slam appearance in 2000, at the US Open.[3] He had the misfortune of being drawn against world number one Andre Agassi in the first round and lost in straight sets.[3] In June 2000, he won the doubles title with Geoff Abrams at the USTA Chandler Cup Futures.[6]
The next time that he played in a Grand Slam event, the 2002 Australian Open, he put in the best performance of his career, starting with an opening round win over Davide Sanguinetti.[3] Despite being ranked outside of the world's top 200, Kim managed to defeat fourth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the second round, without dropping a set.[7] In the third round, he was eliminated by the only other qualifier remaining in the draw, Fernando González.[3]
As a doubles player, Kim competed in the 2002 US Open with Kevin Kim (who is of no relation) and with Jeff Salzenstein in the 2003 US Open.[3] He and his partner lost in the first round of each.[3]