Eng had just returned from the Miami Open tournament, photographing the ATP Tour Masters event for his site. While there, he met with the organisation’s communications team, and broached the idea of helping spread the word about this new generation of tennis players – a group, he says, with “so much talent, and a lot of good-looking men and women players”. His goal in the short term is to create more tennis content – photos, videos, opportunities to style the players. “I could put them in editorials, I could push the players and the sport in general, nationally and internationally,” he adds.

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Eng’s objective has met with some resistance; he says he wasn’t able to get permission to cover Wimbledon as a member of the press because he did not represent a traditional publication, never mind that his site gets millions of hits a month.

“Tennis won’t grow if [these organisations] just appeal to tennis fans. It hasn’t yet reached a critical mass, and I think I know how to bring these tennis players to the general public,” he argues. “Tennis is a very elitist sport, people think you have to be rich to play. But that’s not true. Tennis rackets can cost as little as US$14, and there are often free lessons at public parks.

“The barrier to entry to play is low, but to watch it is high. People have zero idea how to watch all the tournaments. They don’t know how to follow tennis. I’m a new fan and I can see how easy it is for someone to be thwarted from wanting to follow it.”

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Eng was never interested in sports growing up. The son of Chinese immigrants in New York, his father was a college athletic director and his four brothers all played basketball, volleyball or practised karate. It is only recently though that he started taking tennis lessons, and says he good-naturedly chides his father for not getting him started sooner, quipping, “I could have been a really great player if I’d started earlier.”

For now though, Eng has turned his attention to other things. He has just collaborated with Italian jewellery brand Pomellato, styling their ambassador Joey King (a long-time friend and client of Eng) for its latest campaign. He pulled for her sleek black pieces from established brands like Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen.

“We went with all black so the jewellery could be highlighted,” he says, referencing a “strong, masculine” Saint Laurent suit. He is helping her select a dress for her upcoming wedding to director/producer Steven Piet and looking ahead to dressing her for press events in advance of the November premiere of her new Netflix film A Family Affair.

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Despite being asked to work on a number of styling gigs, for Eng the most important thing is connecting with the clients before saying yes to anything. “I have to work with the right people,” he said. “I’m particular how I want to dress people. Styling is very intimate. You get to know a person and you have to ask yourself if this is something you really want to do.

“There is so much more to styling than choosing a wardrobe. A star could be on a press tour and needs 20 looks but the same brand can’t dress you 20 times, so you need to have a relationship with all the houses. You have to deal with tailoring, billing, returns. There are so many logistics involved. A lot of it is who you know, how long you’ve worked together. There has to be history. More than half of styling is in the relationships.”

Most of Eng’s days remain consumed with overseeing his 18-year old website, known for its cheerful and approachable tone while delivering bite-sized bits of celebrity news. Mirroring his experience in tennis, in the beginning, Eng had no access to publicists or insiders. “I used to scour the internet looking for news about celebrities and pushing everything on my platform,” he says.

Instead he utilised fan forums and message boards to see what the superfans of Brad Pitt and the like were talking about, regoosing details like which hotels they were staying at to capitalise on the obsession of groupies.

And as his followers grew, so did his access; he began getting invited to events and parties, and building relationships with studios and their publicists. “Anyone and everyone can be a source now,” he says.

Since its inception, the platform has steered clear of gossip or running anything salacious or controversial. In many ways, it retains its innocent and chatty tenor. Eng is also mindful to not post snarky comments or divulge harmful information, and careful not to post photos of someone’s home, or their children.

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“I want to continue working with these celebrities and their teams,” he said. “I will try to find a happy medium where everyone is happy. I reserve the right to be a critic, but I would never post it. There are a lot of celebrities I don’t love, but I don’t say it. I’d rather let people judge for themselves.”

Eng also points out that the age of diva-dom might be behind us, especially in this era of instant news where every celebrity’s behaviour is placed under a microscope.

“In the past, a lot of talent could get away with being a diva,” he said. “But in this town [Los Angeles] now, all you have is your reputation. If you are rude … if you don’t treat the waiter nicely … they could be your boss one day. My thought has always been – be nice to everyone.”