Jang Su-jeong to compete at first Grand Slam

Jang Su-jeong [YONHAP]

Jang Su-jeong will play her first-ever Grand Slam event on Tuesday having won all three Australian Open qualifying matches to become the first Korean to play a Grand Slam women's singles event in two years.

To qualify for the Australian Open through the qualifiers, rather than by seed or a wildcard pick, players must win three rounds of qualifying matches.

Jang won all three qualifiers in straight sets. Jang defeated Rebeka Masarova of Spain on Thursday 6-2, 6-3, Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 6-4 on Jan. 11 and Taylah Preston of Australia without conceding a single game on Jan. 12.

The latest player to reach a Grand Slam event before Jang is Han Na-rae, who earned her spot in the Australian Open in 2020 as a wildcard.

Jang is the ninth Korean female tennis player to reach the Grand Slam stage. The first-ever was Korean tennis legend Lee Duk-hee, who became the first Korean to play a women's singles Grand Slam event in 1973, when she reached the second round of the Australian Open. In 1980, she became the first Korean across all genders to have played at all four Grand Slam tournaments in a year. In 1981, Lee reached the women’s singles round of 16 at the U.S. Open, the best a Korean woman has ever done.

Jang will be looking to carry on her good form after winning all three qualifiers in straight sets.

The fact that Jang was able to defeat veteran player Errani in the first qualifier is a good sign. Errani finished runner-up at the 2012 French Open and reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open the same year. The following year, the Italian reached her highest-ever rank, at No. 5. Last year at the Australian Open, she reached the round of 32. Jang is ranked at No. 212 in the world but was still able to defeat the veteran in straight sets after putting up a fight for an hour and 44 minutes.

Jang will face Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in her first-ever Grand Slam match on Tuesday. It is bound to be a tough match, as Kovinic has more experience at Grand Slams. In 2016, Kovinic reached a career-high singles ranking at No. 46, after reaching the first round of Wimbledon, the second round of the French Open and the U.S. Open all in the previous year. The Montenegrin has reached the second round at a Grand Slam six times and the first round three times.

The Australian Open starts on Monday and continues through Jan. 30. Kwon Soon-woo will be playing the men's singles.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]