Kwon Soon-woo faces a challenge at Australian Open

Kwon Soon-woo [AP/YONHAP]

Kwon Soon-woo’s past efforts at the Australian Open have not lived up to the legacy of players like Chung Hyeon, who defeated Novak Djokovic in 2018 and managed to reach a Grand Slam semifinal as an unseeded player for the first time as a Korean pro. But Kwon’s prospects this year could be a bit different.

Kwon has been ranking steadily in the 80s to 90s on the APT rankings since last year, and although he crashed out of the home-ground Korea Open during the summer of 2022, he has been playing well since.

At the Rakuten Tokyo Open in October, Kwon managed to show that he is capable of playing well at a big tournament, reaching his maiden ATP 500 singles semifinal.

He climbed to the semis after defeating Alex de Minaur, then ranked at No. 23, in the first match of the tournament. He faced Frances Tiafoe — then ranked 19th in the world — in the semis, but lost in three sets. Kwon showed excellent form against Tiafoe and managed to climb more than 30 spots up the rankings, back into the top 100 after crashing after from the Korea Open.

At the Busan Challenger, also held in October last year, Kwon played pros including Kamil Majchrzak, then ranked No. 104, and Aleksandar Vukic, then ranked No. 150, reaching the quarterfinals of the tournament. Although he lost to Majchrzak, he put on a show of magnificent three-set play, holding the second set to a tie-break and pushing the match into a third set.

At the Adelaide International 2, currently in progress, Kwon was able to defeat Vasek Pospisil of Canada, ranked No. 98 and a holding a career-high world singles ranking at No. 25, in the qualifiers match on Sunday. Kwon gave in the first set to Pospisil but played through the second and third sets both ending in 6-3, taking the match.

During the second qualifiers match held Monday against Tomas Machac of Czechia, ranked No. 97, Machac took the first set 7-5, but Kwon managed to break early in the second set, before ultimately losing the match in the third set. Despite the underwhelming performance Monday, these results do not mean that Kwon is out of Adelaide 2 entirely — he is still alive in qualifiers. Kwon may snag the "lucky loser" spot in the tournament, while Tennis Majors called Kwon the “biggest riser” in Adelaide so far.

The focus now is on whether Kwon can carry this solid streak over to the Australian Open in Melbourne at the end of the month.

At last year’s event in Australia, Kwon won his first match, defeating Holger Rune in five grueling sets at Melbourne Park

Kwon and Rune had faced off initially in Marbella, Spain, back in 2021, on an outdoor clay court in the round of 32, which Kwon also won in three sets. Rune is currently ranked top 10 — Kwon’s strong performance against such a high-ranked player harbors good signs of his prospects at playing top-seeded pros at this year’s Australian Open.

Kwon lost in the second round of the Australian Open last year to Denis Shapovalov in another five set match, a match that included three tiebreaks. Kwon and Shapovalov had faced each other for the first time at the US Open during the round of 64 in New York in 2020, on an outdoor hard court.

Kwon’s head to head results against Shapovalov — less impressive than his results against Rune — do not fare too badly for the Korean pro, since Shapovalov has had one of his best years in 2022, winning the Davis Cup and reaching a third Major quarterfinal and garnering his sixth ATP series final appearance.

Whether Kwon can win against Shapovalov or an equally skilled top-ranker if he faces such a player in the beginning stages of this year’s Australian Open is the big question.

Another point fans are looking out for is Kwon’s performance for Korea at the 2023 Davis Cup, the qualifying rounds of which are to take place in February. The twelve winners of the qualifying rounds will be up for the 2023 Davis Cup Finals. Korea faces Belgium at the Olympic Tennis Court in southern Seoul on Feb. 4 and 5 on an outdoor hard court.

Kwon leads the Korean team, accompanied by Nam Ji-sung, Hong Seong-chan and Song Min-kyu. David Goffin, currently ranked No. 53 in singles, leads the Belgium team, with Zizou Bergs, Kimmer Copperjans and Sander Gille also carrying the Belgian national flag.

Whether Kwon can perform well at the Australian Open and carry that momentum into the Davis Cup qualifiers for the home ground fans in February remains to be seen.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]