Kwon Soon-woo falls out of Wimbledon after tough doubles match

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Kwon Soon-woo falls out of Wimbledon after tough doubles match

Kwon Soon-woo plays a forehand in his match against Serbian Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2022 Wimbledon championships in London on June 27. [UPI/YONHAP]

Kwon Soon-woo plays a forehand in his match against Serbian Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2022 Wimbledon championships in London on June 27. [UPI/YONHAP]

 
Kwon Soon-woo fell out of Wimbledon on Friday, losing in the first round of the men's doubles alongside Aljaž Bedene of Slovenia against Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador and Cristian Rodríguez of Colombia while the top two of the men's singles, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, reached the round of 16.
 
Though losing in three straight sets, Kwon and Bedene did hold Hidalgo and Rodríguez to a tie-breaker in the first and second sets. The first and second set reached 6-6, with Hidalgo and Rodríguez winning the seventh game in both sets and finally taking the third set 6-3, advancing to the second round.
 
Kwon was scheduled to play the first round of doubles with Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia, but Kyrgios pulled out of the men's doubles at Wimbledon to concentrate on what could be his best chance at the singles title at a grand slam event.
 
Kyrgios is scheduled to play his men's singles round of 16 against Brandon Nakashima of the United States. After struggling against court favorite Briton Paul in Court 3 in the first round, Kyrgios beat Filip Krajinović of Serbia in the second round in three straight sets to reach the third round.
 
In the third round, Kyrgios beat 2021 French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece after a grueling four sets.
 
Kyrgios, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in his 2014 debut, is now reaching the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2020 Australian Open.
 
Before playing the men's doubles, Kwon showed off his form against six-time Wimbledon champion and top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the first round of the tournament on Centre Court.
 
Rather than rolling over for a three-set drubbing — as may have been expected from world No. 81 Kwon facing No. 3 Djokovic — the top Korean rose to the occasion, forcing the Serbian to four long sets, none of them easily won.
 
Although the end result saw Kwon out of the tournament, his performance as he faced the 20-time Grand Slam winner for the first time was still markedly impressive, pushing the match to two hours and 27 minutes and earning a warm standing ovation from a packed Centre Court crowd.
 
The Serbian is not only the defending champion but also one of the top three male tennis players in history, alongside 22-time Grand Slam winner Nadal of Spain and 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer of Switzerland. Nadal is also in action at Wimbledon this year, while eight-time Wimbledon champion Federer will sit out the event to recover from knee surgery.

 
All Koreans are now out of Wimbledon, but there is still plenty more to keep an eye out for.
 
The top two contenders for the trophy, king of clay Nadal and Djokovic are both through to the round of 16.
 
On the grass court, Djokovic is the strongest contender. Djokovic will be looking to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon singles title this year, and his eighth in total to match Federer's record.
 
But even another Grand Slam title at Wimbledon won't help Djokovic regain his No. 1 crown.
 
Wimbledon this year opted to ban Russian and Belarussian players from competing after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a move that puts it at odds with the rest of the tennis community that continues to maintain that tennis players represent themselves, not their country.
 
As a result, there are no ATP Tour points available at the event this year, meaning Djokovic will automatically drop to world No. 7 when Wimbledon ends and the 2,000 points he won at last year's tournament disappear from the rolling ranking tally. It also means world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia is ineligible to compete due to his nationality.
 
Wimbledon runs through July 10.

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