Kwon Soon-woo to face Lukas Klein in first round at Australian Open

Korea’s tennis darling Kwon Soon-woo, who infamously ended his last singles match with a temper tantrum, is returning to the court Tuesday after a nearly four-month break.

Kwon Soon-woo returns the ball during a match against Belgium's David Goppang during the final round of the 2023 Davis Cup at the Olympic Park Indoor Tennis Court in eastern Seoul on Feb. 5, 2023. [NEWS1]

Korea’s tennis darling Kwon Soon-woo, who infamously ended his last singles match with a temper tantrum, is returning to the court Tuesday after a nearly four-month break.

The 26-year-old is set to meet Slovakia’s Lukas Klein, 25, in a first-round match at the Australian Open, which began with qualifying rounds last week and will run until Jan. 28.

It will be the first time Kwon, currently ranked No. 206, meets No. 163 Klein. And it’s expected to be a tough match, as Kwon has not played in a tournament since last fall and Klein is fresh off of three straight wins through last week’s qualifiers.

It will also be Kwon’s first time back on the singles court since crashing — and smashing — out of the men’s singles tournament at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September.

Kwon, then-ranked No. 112, lost to No. 636 Kasidit Samrej of Thailand during a surprise second-round upset. He threw his racket and refused to shake his opponent’s hand, which went viral and sparked serious backlash from fans for his unsportsmanlike behavior.

“I am deeply reflecting on the behavior I exhibited after the match,” Kwon wrote in an apology letter posted online. “As a national team member that represents Korea, I will think about what it means to put the Taeguk logo on and be careful with every behavior, so I can be a responsible player.”

That loss marked the end of a season plagued by injury, which saw Kwon’s rankings plummet from a career-high No. 52 in January to No. 198 by the end of 2023, as recorded by the International Tennis Federation.

Kwon started the 2023 season on a high, winning his second career title at the Adelaide 2 International in January, becoming the first Korean tennis player to hold multiple singles titles on the top-tier men’s ATP Tour.

It was a career peak for the rising star, who is one of the only Korean tennis players to be ranked within the top 100 and was Korea’s sole representative at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the year he won his first title.

But a shoulder injury took him out in February and his season came to an abrupt stop after the Qatar Open. He made it to the Round of 16, losing to Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, before putting his schedule on pause to recover.

He did not return to the Tour until six months later for the U.S. Open in August. Kwon made an early exit from the Grand Slam, losing in the first round to Christopher Eubanks of the United States — who also bested Kwon in the first round at last year's Australian Open.

Kwon played just a handful of matches between the U.S. Open and the Asian Games, representing Korea at the Davis Cup in Valencia, Spain but losing all three of his matches during the group stage as Korea failed to advance to the next round.

He had also been scheduled to make an appearance at the “Ultimate Tennis Showdown” in Seoul in December, but the tournament was canceled a week before it was set to begin. Organizers said it would be postponed to 2024, although there has been no new date as of press time.

Kwon played a total of 16 matches in 2023, with seven wins and nine losses, down from 44 matches in 2022.

But he is set to have a packed schedule for 2024, suggesting in a post to Instagram earlier this month that he looks to make it to all four Grand Slam tournaments, beginning with the Australian Open — followed by the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open later this year.

Kwon’s match against Klein is set to begin at 9 a.m. Korea time Tuesday at Melbourne Park in Melbourne.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]