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| Kwon Soon-woo, left, and Chung Hyeon high-five each other during their men's doubles semifinals match against Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico at the ATP Eugene Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul on Oct. 1, in this photo provided by the tournament organizing committee. Yonhap |
The Korean tennis doubles duo of Chung Hyeon and Kwon Soon-soo fell in the semifinals of the lone ATP Tour event on home court on Saturday, missing out on a chance to go for their first doubles title together.
Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico beat the Koreans 6-3, 6-3, in the semifinals at the Eugene Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul.
In Sunday's final, Barrientos and Reyes-Varela will take on the top seed duo, Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Nathaniel Lammons of the United States.
The Korea Open is the first ATP Tour tournament in Korea since 1996. No Korean player has won an ATP Tour title on home soil, singles or doubles.
There are no Koreans left at this year's tournament in singles or doubles.
Chung, the 2018 Australian Open semifinalist, was playing for the first time in two years after recovering from a career-threatening back injury. He has been sidelined for so long that he is not even ranked.
Kwon is the top-ranked Korean singles player at No. 121, having fallen 47 spots at the start of this week after one year had passed since his maiden ATP Tour win in Kazakhstan.
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| Chung Hyeon of South Korea serves the ball during his men's doubles semifinals match with Kwon Soon-woo against Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico at the ATP Eugene Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul, Oct. 1, in this photo provided by the tournament organizing committee. Yonhap |
"It's tough to finish this tournament with a loss, but I played more matches than I'd expected to play in my return," Chung said. "I am leaving with some fond memories of having played with Soon-woo. Hopefully, we'll play better next time we're together."
Chung and Kwon teamed up for the doubles for the first time for this occasion. They are mainly singles players but left the doors open for more partnership down the road.
"I feel like we can be even better, since we've now played our first tournament together," Chung said. "I am going to have to earn some ranking points first. But I'd love to play with Soon-woo whenever we have a chance to do so."
The feeling was mutual.
"I will keep bugging him to play with me," Kwon said. "It's been so much fun playing doubles with him."
The magic ran out for the South Koreans on Saturday, though, after two consecutive wins to reach the semifinals. After dropping the first set without much of a fight, they got broken right out of the game in the second set. From a 2-2 tie, they were broken again and only won one more game the rest of the way.
Chung will be playing in the singles in the lower-tier ATP Challenger Tour event in Seoul starting Oct. 10. Kwon will fly to Tokyo for the Japan Open starting Monday. (Yonhap)
