Kwon Soon-woo beats Marcus Giron to advance at Atlanta Open

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Published: 26 Jul. 2022, 16:06

Kwon Soon-woo beats Marcus Giron to advance at Atlanta Open

Kwon Soon-woo reacts after scoring against Marcus Giron of the United States during Day One of the Atlanta Open at Atlantic Station in Atlanta on Monday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Marcos Giron of the United States is greeted by young fans before his match against Kwon Soon-woo on Day One of the Atlanta Open at Atlantic Station in Atlanta on Monday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Kwon Soon-woo beat Marcos Giron of the United States two sets to one in the round of 32 at the Atlanta Open in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday.

The Atlanta Open is an ATP 250 tournament, the lowest tier on the senior ATP tour.

On Monday at Atlantic Station, Kwon started out strong, breaking Giron’s serve in the second game of the first set and kept that lead. However, Giron managed to break Kwon’s serve toward the end of the first set, leveling the score at 5-5. After each winning their serves, the first set was pushed to a seven-point tie-breaker. It was Kwon who managed to prevail, winning the tie break 7-3.

But even after putting up a fight to win his first set, Kwon seemed to wobble in the second set. Conceding his first serve game to Giron, the American kept his lead until the end of the set to take the second set.

Kwon Soon-woo returns a shot against Marcus Giron of the United States during Day One of the Atlanta Open at Atlantic Station on Monday in Atlanta. [AFP/YONHAP]

In the last set, Kwon won his first serve then broke Giron’s serve. Giron did not back down, however, winning four sets in a row to lead the final set 4-2.

Even with two games down, Kwon isn’t one to give up, coming back with a vengeance to win the next three games in a row.

Breaking two of Giron’s serves gave Kwon the confidence he needed to finish off the set 7-5 after two hours and 42 minutes.

Kwon’s serve games are also looking much stronger this year.

This year, Kwon has held a higher 85.25 percent of his serves after breaking the opponent’s, a noticeably jump up from last year's 77.53 percent.

Kwon has also won 91.67 percent of his service games this year as opposed to 78.26 percent in 2021.

However, Kwon’s lack of speed and technique in his serves is what seems to hold him back.

On Monday, Giron had 13 aces while Kwon had six. Kwon also had a total of three double faults, the latter two coming at decisive points during the match. He made his second double fault during the seven-point tiebreaker in the first set, then made his third in the fifth game of the final set that Giron ended up breaking.

Though this is the first time that Kwon has played against Giron in the men’s singles, the two played together as a team in the men’s doubles at the Australian Open this January.

Despite it being the first time they had partnered up, Kwon and Giron played well together and reached the third round of the men’s doubles, tying Kwon’s personal best result at a Grand Slam. Kwon has previously reached the third round once before in the singles competition at the French Open last year.

Kwon will next play the round of 16 of the Atlanta Open on Thursday.

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