Kwon, Giron advance to second round at Australian Open

Kwon Soon-woo will advance to the second round of the men's doubles tournament at the Australian Open with partner Marcos Giron of the United States after beating Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Jan Zieliński of Poland in straight sets on Thursday

Kwon Soon-woo in action during his first round match against Denmark's Holger Rune on Monday at the Australian Open in Melbourne Park, Melbourne. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Kwon Soon-woo will advance to the second round of the men’s doubles tournament at the Australian Open with partner Marcos Giron of the United States after beating Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Jan Zieliński of Poland in straight sets on Thursday.

This is the first time Kwon has advanced to the second round in a Grand Slam doubles tournament. His two previous appearances — at the Australian Open in 2020, French Open in 2020 and U.S. Open last year — all ended in the first round.

Marcos Giron of the United States competes during the men's singles first round match against Rafael Nadal of Spain at the Australian Open 2022 in Melbourne, Australia on Monday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

On Thursday, Kwon and Giron beat Bublik of and Zieliński 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the second round.

Despite being the first time Kwon and Giron have partnered up, the pair seemed to be comfortable playing together, figuring out the opponent in the first set in just 27 minutes then winning the second in 28 minutes.

Kwon is ranked at No. 54 and Giron at No. 66 in the world. Giron is also out of the men's singles competition after facing world No. 5 and 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal of Spain in the first round and dropping the match in three straight sets.

On Wednesday, Kwon was knocked out of the men's singles, dropping his second round match against world No. 14 Denis Shapovalov of Canada after a hard-fought four hours and 25 minutes.

Kwon and Giron will be playing Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan on Saturday in the second round.

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