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| Lee Duck-hee, of South Korea, reacts after losing a point to Hubert Hurkacz, of Poland, at the Winston-Salem Open tennis tournament Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, in Winston-Salem, N.C. AP-Yonhap |
South Korean deaf tennis player Lee Duck-hee has been eliminated in the second round of an ATP Tour event, less than 24 hours after notching a historic victory.
Lee, world No. 212, fell to the 41st-ranked Hubert Hurkacz in three sets at the Winston-Salem Open on the ATP Tour in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Tuesday (local time). Lee won the first set 6-4, before the Polish player battled back to win the next two, 6-0, 6-3.
On the previous day, Lee knocked off Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 2-0 (7-6(4), 6-1) to become the first deaf tennis player to win on the top men's tour.
This was the first ATP Tour appearance for the 21-year-old, who had mostly been playing on the lower-tier Challenger Tour.
Lee, who gave away more than 20 centimeters to Hurkacz, picked up where he left off and grabbed the first set. But then Hurkacz, who upset world No. 8 Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Rogers Cup earlier this month, proved to be too much for the South Korean.
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| Lee Duck-hee, of South Korea, hits a forehand to Hubert Hurkacz, of Poland, in the second round of the Winston-Salem Open tennis tournament Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, in Winston-Salem, N.C. AP-Yonhap |
Hurkacz breezed to a 6-0 win in the second set and opened up a 4-0 lead in the deciding third set.
Lee had three break points in Hurkacz's first service game in the third set but couldn't convert any. Then down 2-0 in the set, Lee battled back from a 40-0 deficit to hold a break point and failed to capitalize on it.
Lee finally broke Hurkacz to make it 4-1 in the game score, only to be broken in the very next game and fall back to 5-1.
Lee won the next two games and then had a double break point that would have brought him to 5-4. But Hurkacz held off Lee to close out the match in just over two hours and two minutes.
Hurkacz recorded 13 aces to Lee's one. Lee committed 14 double faults and converted only four out of 12 break points.
Lee is scheduled to enter a Challenger Tour event in Jinan, China, early next month. (Yonhap)
