Kwon Soon-woo exits Australian Open after tight first round

Kwon Soon-woo is out of the Australian Open, losing 3-1 to Slovakia’s Lukas Klein in a tough first-round match on Tuesday.

Korea's Kwon Soon-woo plays a backhand return to Slovakia's Lukas Klein during their first round match at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday. [AP/YONHAP]

Kwon Soon-woo is out of the Australian Open, losing 3-1 to Slovakia’s Lukas Klein in a tough first-round match on Tuesday.

It was the Korean tennis player’s first appearance in a major tennis tournament since crashing out of the Hangzhou Asian Games with a temper tantrum last fall.

It was a tough battle from the start. Klein, who advanced to the Round of 128 through the qualifiers last week, won the first set 7-6, defeating Kwon 7-0 in the first-to-seven tiebreaker.

Kwon, 26, came back in the second set, besting 25-year-old Klein 6-4. But Kwon failed to keep that momentum in the third set, which was pushed into another tiebreaker, which Klein won 7-3 to nab the 7-6 victory.

Kwon seemed to lose some of his steam in the fourth and final set of a match full of back-and-forth advantages.

Kwon lost that set 6-3, and with it, a chance to advance to the next round in his first Grand Slam since his early exit at last year’s U.S. Open.

It’s a disappointing start to the 2024 season for Kwon, who is fresh off a year plagued by a shoulder injury that took him out of commission for six months in 2023.

Kwon, once ranked No. 52, entered his Tuesday match at No. 206 while Klein came in at No. 163.

It’s been a far fall for Kwon, who has two career titles on the men’s top-tier ATP Tour, one in 2021 and one in January 2023, before beginning his extended break a month later to recover.

Klein is set to next step on the court Thursday for his second-round match while Kwon walks away from the tournament but with $80,000, the prize money for players who make it to the Round of 128 in the men’s and women’s singles tournaments.

The Australian Open is set to run until Jan. 28.

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