Two Koreans to compete at U.S. Open this week

Korean tennis players Kwon Soon-woo and Han Na-lae will launch their U.S. Open campaigns in Flushing Meadows, New York this week.

Kwon Soon-woo [AFP/YONHAP]

Korean tennis players Kwon Soon-woo and Han Na-lae will launch their U.S. Open campaigns in Flushing Meadows, New York this week.

Kwon, currently ranked at No. 104, arrives in New York after being sidelined for most of the year following an injury sustained in February. He has been playing in the United States since early this month, but has not competed in an ATP tournament since the ATP 250 Doha at the end of February.

Kwon will face world No. 30 Christopher Eubanks of the United States in the first round in the Grandstand on Monday. The two have faced off twice before, with Eubanks winning their most recent meeting at the Australian Open this year over five sets, and Kwon taking a three-set victory in Doha last year.

Eubanks is likely to prove to be a tough opponent for Kwon, who is looking to make it past the first few rounds at the Grand Slam tournament. Kwon has never reached the third round at the U.S. Open, crashing out in the second round in both 2020 and last year.

Kwon currently has two ATP Tour titles, the Adelaide International earlier this year and the Astana Open title that he won in 2021 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. He was only the second Korean player ever to win an ATP title, after Lee Hyung-taik, who won the Sydney International in 2003.

Han Na-lae [YONHAP]

World No. 122 Han also faces a tough challenge in the form of No. 9 Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the women’s singles tournament on Tuesday. The two have never faced off before, but Vondrousova arrives in New York in extremely good form after winning Wimbledon earlier this summer.

Han earned her spot in the U.S. Open the hard way, fighting her way through qualifying. After beating world No. 203 Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra in straight sets in the first round, Han edged out world No. 102 Lucrezia Stefanini of Italy in the second round before No. 154 Elizabeth Mandlik of the United States to reach the tournament proper.

The U.S. Open will be Han’s second Grand Slam, having previously made it to the first round of the Australian Open in 2020.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]