Kwon Soon-woo captures 2nd career ATP title in Australia
Kwon Soon-woo captures 2nd career ATP title in Australia
Blog Article
Kwon Soon-woo captured his second career ATP Tour title in Australia, Saturday, becoming the first Korean with multiple victories on the top men's tennis circuit.
Kwon, ranked 84th, defeated world No. 26 Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4) to win the Adelaide International 2 at Memorial Drive Tennis Centre in Adelaide. Kwon grabbed the final four points in the decisive tiebreak to knock off the former world No. 9 from Spain after two hours and 42 minutes.
Kwon, 25, won his maiden ATP title at the Astana Open in September 2021 ― the first South Korean winner since Lee Hyung-taik in 2003.
Lee retired with one career singles title, and Kwon moved ahead of him on the career leaderboard Saturday.
Chung Hyeon, the 2018 Australian Open semifinalist, won the Next Generation ATP Finals in November 2017. But the exhibition event was only open to players 21 or younger and didn't count as an official ATP victory for Chung.
Kwon was one of two "lucky losers" of this tournament. He had lost in the second round of the qualifying stage, but entered the main draw after two players withdrew because of injuries.
This was Kwon's second tournament of 2023, after kicking off the 스포츠 season with a first-round loss at the Adelaide International 1 at the same venue.
This was an ATP 250 tournament, with the champion collecting 250 ranking points. It is in the lowest tier in ATP, below the four Grand Slam tournaments, ATP Finals, ATP Masters 1000 and ATP 500 events.
Kwon is expected to crack the top 70 in the world rankings next week. His career high is No. 52 from November 2021.
After the players traded the first two sets, the third set was a nail-biting seesaw affair.
Down 2-1, Kwon broke Bautista Agut to pull even, and then held his serve to go up 3-2.
Bautista Agut returned the favor, winning the next game and then breaking Kwon to take a 4-3 lead.
Kwon bounced back to break Bautista Agut to pull even again, and then won the next game without dropping a point for a 5-4 advantage.
But the Spanish veteran wouldn't go away, winning the next game for a 5-5 tie. Kwon overcame a double fault to hold his serve for a 6-5 lead, but Bautista Agut sent the match to a tiebreak in the next game.
The players traded points early, before Bautista Agut went up 4-3 on back-to-back aces.
But he never won another point, with a couple of unforced errors giving Kwon a 5-4 lead. The Korean put down a forehand winner to move to a championship point, and clinched his second title when Bautista Agut's backhand return went wide left.