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| South Korean tennis player Chung Hyeon hits the ball during a French Open qualification game against Renzo Olivo at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, Wednesday. / Captured from French Open website |
By Jhoo Dong-chan
South Korean tennis star Chung Hyeon was defeated in a French Open qualification game against Argentinean player Renzo Olivo at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, Wednesday, failing to get out of his prolonged slump.
The 24-year-old clinched his first victory this year against French wild card Baptiste Crepatte 2-0 the previous day, advancing to face Olivo who he beat 3-0 in the first round of the Australian Open three years ago.
The Argentinean star was a tricky opponent for Chung as he has proven his quality on clay courts throughout his career. Olivo won the clay-court Italian ATP Tour Challenger last year and shut out Chung that day.
Chung was off to a shaky start by conceding two service breaks in the first set. The South Korean later managed to tie the set 6-6, but failed to win the tie break.
He also failed to demonstrate a steady performance in his service game in the second set. Chung ended up conceding the set 2-6 to lose the match.
The South Korean gave up 11 double faults with 38 errors on the day ― Olivo, in the meantime, conceded only four double faults throughout the match.
Chung is currently the second-highest-ranked South Korean and also the 2017 Next Gen Finals champion.
As an unseeded player, he became the first Korean to reach a Grand Slam semifinal at the 2018 Australian Open.
Chung started suffering a slump after struggling with injury in 2019. He fell outside of the top 150 from a career-high ranking of 19. He returned at the 2019 Chengdu Challenger, but failed to deliver a strong performance.
