SEOUL– The South Korean doubles tandem of Chung Hyeon and Kwon Soon-woo advanced to the semifinals of the lone ATP tournament on home soil on Friday, winning a three-set thriller in front of loud partisan fans in the nation’s capital.
Chung and Kwon defeated Andre Goransson of Sweden and Ben McLachlan of Japan 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 10-7, in the quarterfinals at the Eugene Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul.
In Saturday’s semifinals, the two South Koreans will face Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico, who had defeated another South Korean team, Song Min-kyu and Nam Ji-sung, in the quarterfinals earlier Friday.
Chung and Kwon are the only remaining South Korean players at the Korea Open, which is the first ATP tournament in Seoul since 1996.
Chung, the 2018 Australian Open semifinalist, is playing for the first time in two years after recovering from a back injury. Kwon, the highest-ranked South Korean male singles player at No. 121, was eliminated in the round of 16 in the singles Thursday.
This was the second match here for the newly-formed Korean tandem, and Kwon said he was pleased to have achieved a goal he’d set for himself before the tournament.
“I wanted to play into the weekend, in either the singles or the doubles,” Kwon said. “I will get to do just that thanks to Hyeon. I am so grateful.”
Chung the chemistry between the two players will only get better from here.
“I was more relaxed today, and it’s great that we’ll get to play another match,” Chung said. “If an opportunity presents itself, I’d love to keep playing doubles with Soon-woo.”
The two players have been saying all week that they would not devise specific game plans and they would just keep winging it on the court. After two consecutive victories, they aren’t about to change anything.
“I think it’s better to go into matches with a clear head. If you start thinking too much, it will only complicate things,” Chung said. “My best strategy is just to have fun with Soon-woo and not worry about anything else.”
Kwon chimed in: “We already have the scouting report on our opponents (for the semifinals). The only thing Hyeon and I talked about today was, ‘Good match today. When are we going to meet for practice tomorrow?’ or things of that nature.”
Chung and Kwon blew a 4-2 lead in the first set to drop to a tiebreak. They opened up a 4-1 lead thanks to a combination of Chung’s winners and an opponent double fault. At 4-3, Kwon got down a nifty, around-the-net winner to give his team some breathing room, and the South Koreans closed out the set when Goransson’s return hit the net.
Chung and Kwon got broke to start the second set and found themselves down 5-1 in the blink of an eye. They forced deuce in the final game before going down 6-2.
In the 10-point tiebreaker for the third set, Goransson and McLachlan went up 3-1 when the South Koreans kept missing their volleys left and right.
But then Goransson sent a couple of returns to the net to give the Korean team a 5-4 lead. The teams went back and forth before a McLachlan double fault gave Chung and Kwon an 8-6 lead.
After the teams traded points, Chung finished the match with a backhand winner that bounced past the two opposing players.
Chung and Kwon enjoyed raucous support from fans all match. They both said they were surprised by such a huge turnout of enthusiastic fans.
“I’ve heard a lot of talk about how tennis is becoming more popular here, but I never expected anything quite like this,” Chung said. “I was so happy to see the full stands. But at the same time, I was worried that I would let our fans down because I am not 100 percent back.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency