Kwon Soon-woo ( ko, 권순우; born 2 December 1997) is a South Korean professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 52 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in November 2021. He also has a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 227, attained in October 2022. Since turning professional in 2015, Kwon has won two ATP, three ATP Challenger Tour and five ITF World Tennis Tour singles titles. He broke into the top 100 of the ATP singles rankings in August 2019 after reaching the quarterfinals at the Los Cabos Open and contested his first ATP Tour final at the

Astana Open The Astana Open is a professional tennis tournament, held in Astana, Kazakhstan, at the end of October each year since 2020. The tournament is held on indoor hard courts. In 2020, it was primarily organised due to the cancellation of many tourna ...

in September 2021, where he won his maiden title and made his top 60 debut. In January 2023, he won his second ATP Tour title at the Adelaide International, becoming the first Korean to win multiple ATP titles.

Early life

Kwon was born in a small town Sangju and began playing tennis at age 10. He moved to Seoul at age 16 and attended high school there with Lee Duck-hee, another future ATP Tour player. His father Younghun is a talented amateur tennis player and introduced him to tennis. His favorite surface is hard and favorite shots are down-the-line forehand and drop shot.

Professional career

2018–2019: ATP Tour & Grand Slam & top 100 debuts

Kwon made his tour-level and Grand Slam debut after winning the 2018 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff for the main draw of the

2018 Australian Open The 2018 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played at Melbourne Park between 15 and 28 January 2018, and was the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2018 season. The tournament consisted of events for professional players in singles, doubles ...

. He made his top 100 debut on 5 August 2019 at world No. 97, after reaching the quarterfinals as a qualifier at the

2019 Los Cabos Open The 2019 Los Cabos Open (also known as the Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel presentado por Cinemex for sponsorship reasons) was an ATP tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 4th edition of the tournament, and part of the ATP ...

2020–2021: First major win at the US Open; French Open 3rd round, maiden ATP title

In February 2020, Kwon reached four consecutive ATP Tour-level quarterfinals in Pune,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Delray Beach and

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

. As a result, Kwon rose to a career-high ranking of 69 on 2 March 2020. Kwon defeated world No. 24,

Dušan Lajović Dušan Lajović ( sr-cyrl, Душан Лајовић; born 30 June 1990) is a Serbian professional tennis player. Lajović has won one singles and two doubles titles on the ATP Tour. On 29 April 2019, Lajović reached his career-high singles rank ...

, in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals in Acapulco, which was his first

ATP 500 The ATP 500 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 500'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series Gold'', and ''ATP Championship Series'') are the fourth highest tier of annual men's tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tourn ...

event. He lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. At the 2020 US Open Kwon recorded his first win in a Grand Slam defeating wildcard

Thai-Son Kwiatkowski Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (born February 13, 1995) is a Vietnamese American tennis player. He played collegiately for the Virginia Cavaliers. On May 29, 2017, Kwiatkowski won the NCAA Men's Singles Championship. This victory earned him a wildcard in ...

. Kwon reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at the

2021 French Open The 2021 French Open was a major level tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 30 May to 13 June 2021, comprising singles, doubles and mixed doubles play. The qualifiers too ...

where he defeated South African Kevin Anderson and Andreas Seppi before losing to another Italian ninth seed and eventual quarterfinalist Matteo Berrettini. Despite losing in qualifying at the Eastbourne International, Kwon entered with a second-round bye as a lucky loser after Reilly Opelka withdrew. He made the semifinals before falling to Alex de Minaur. Kwon was competing in his maiden ATP Tour semifinal after winning his first quarterfinal in his eighth attempt against Ilya Ivashka. In Astana, Kwon won his first ATP Tour-level title. There, he defeated qualifier Evgeny Donskoy, third seed

, and seventh seed Laslo Đere to reach his second ATP semifinal. In the semifinal, he defeated home favourite and second seed Alexander Bublik to advance to his first ATP Tour-level final. He defeated

James Duckworth James or Jim Duckworth may refer to: *Sir James Duckworth (businessman, born 1840) (1840–1915), British businessman and Liberal Member of Parliament * James Duckworth (businessman, born 1869) (1869–1937), British businessman and son of Sir Jame ...

in straight sets to win his first ATP title and became the first South Korean to win on the ATP Tour and only the second Korean to win a tour-level title in the Open era since 2003 Sydney champion

Hyung-Taik Lee Lee Hyung-taik ( ko, 이형택, born 3 January 1976) is a former professional tennis player from South Korea. He won one singles title and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 36, in August 2007. Personal life Lee was born in a p ...

. As a result, he reached a new career-high of No. 57 on 27 September 2021.

2022: Maiden ATP 500 singles SF, Australian Open doubles 3rd round

At the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, he won his first match defeating Holger Rune in five sets. He lost in the second round to Denis Shapovalov in a tight five-set match with three tiebreaks. At

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, he lost in the first round to the top seed and eventual champion, Novak Djokovic, in four sets. Ranked No. 120 at the Japan Open, he reached the quarterfinals for a second time at the ATP 500-level defeating sixth seed Alex de Minaur and Mackenzie McDonald. He defeated Pedro Martinez to reach his first ATP 500-level semifinal. As a result, he moved more then 30 positions up in the rankings, back into the top 100.

2023: Second title

He won his second career ATP title in Adelaide, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets. In doing so, he became the first Korean to win multiple ATP titles. He became the first lucky loser to reach the final in Adelaide's tournament history and the first to win an ATP Tour title since Marco Cecchinato in Budapest in 2018.

National representation

Kwon has represented South Korea in the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

. He was first nominated to the team for the

2017 Davis Cup The 2017 Davis Cup was the 106th edition of the Davis Cup, a tournament between national teams in men's tennis. It was sponsored by BNP Paribas. France won their tenth title (their first since 2001), with Lucas Pouille defeating Steve Darcis of B ...

, making his debut against Uzbek tennis player Denis Istomin. Kwon represented South Korea at the

2022 Davis Cup Finals The Finals, formerly known as World Group, is the highest level of Davis Cup competition in 2022. It took place from 13 to 18 September and from 22 to 27 November 2022. The ties were contested in a best-of-three rubbers format and played on one d ...

and recorded his first victory over a top-20 player by defeating world No. 13, Felix Auger-Aliassime 7–6⁽⁵⁾, 6–3 in the group stage tie versus Canada.

Performance timelines

Singles

''Current through the 2023 Australian Open.''

Doubles

''Current through the 2022 Korea Open.''

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (2 titles)

Records

* These records were attained in the Open era of tennis.

Davis Cup

* indicates the outcome of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 11 (8–3)

Doubles: 6 (2–4)

Head-to-head records

Record against top 10 players

Kwon's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who are active in boldface. Only ATP Tour main draw and Davis Cup matches are considered:

Record against players ranked No. 11–20

''Active players are in boldface.'' * Reilly Opelka 0–2 * Kyle Edmund 0–1 * Guido Pella 0–3 * Albert Ramos-Viñolas 0–1 * Nikoloz Basilashvili 0–1 * Alex de Minaur 1–1 * Benoit Paire 2–1 * Frances Tiafoe 0–2 * Tommy Paul 0–1 :*'

ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors

Singles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runners-up)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kwon, Soon-woo 1997 births Living people South Korean male tennis players Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for South Korea Olympic tennis players of South Korea People from Sangju 21st-century South Korean people