Kwon Soon-woo (Korean: 권순우; born 2 December 1997) is a South Korean professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 52 ranking by the ATP, achieved in November 2021 and a doubles ranking of world No. 224, attained in December 2022. Kwon has won two ATP, three ATP Challenger Tour and five ITF World Tennis Tour singles titles.
He broke into the top 100 of the ATP singles rankings in August 2019 after reaching the quarterfinals at the Los Cabos Open and contested his first ATP Tour final at the Astana Open in September 2021, where he won his maiden title and made his top 60 debut. In January 2023, he won his second ATP Tour title at the Adelaide International as a lucky loser, becoming the first Korean to win multiple ATP titles and the tenth lucky loser winner overall in the Open Era.
Early life
Kwon was born in a small town Sangju and began playing tennis at age 10. He moved to Seoul at age 16 and attended high school there with Lee Duck-hee, another future ATP Tour player. His father Younghun is a talented amateur tennis player and introduced him to tennis. His favorite surface is hard and favorite shots are down-the-line forehand and drop shot.[1]
Professional career
2018–2019: ATP Tour & Grand Slam & top 100 debuts
Kwon made his tour-level and Grand Slam debut after winning the 2018 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Playoff for the main draw of the 2018 Australian Open.[2]
He made his top 100 debut on 5 August 2019 at world No. 97, after reaching the quarterfinals as a qualifier at the 2019 Los Cabos Open.
2020–2021: First major win at the US Open; French Open third round, maiden ATP title
In February 2020, Kwon reached four consecutive ATP Tour-level quarterfinals in Pune, New York, Delray Beach and Acapulco. As a result, Kwon rose to a career-high ranking of 69 on 2 March 2020. Kwon defeated world No. 24, Dušan Lajović, in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals in Acapulco, which was his first ATP 500 event. He lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.
Kwon reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at the 2021 French Open where he defeated South African Kevin Anderson and Andreas Seppi before losing to another Italian ninth seed and eventual quarterfinalist Matteo Berrettini.
Despite losing in qualifying at the Eastbourne International, Kwon entered with a second-round bye as a lucky loser after Reilly Opelka withdrew.[3] He made the semifinals before falling to Alex de Minaur. Kwon was competing in his maiden ATP Tour semifinal after winning his first quarterfinal in his eighth attempt against Ilya Ivashka.[4]
In Astana, Kwon won his first ATP Tour-level title. There, he defeated qualifier Evgeny Donskoy, third seed Dušan Lajović, and seventh seed Laslo Đere to reach his second ATP semifinal. In the semifinal, he defeated home favourite and second seed Alexander Bublik to advance to his first ATP Tour-level final. He defeated James Duckworth in straight sets to win his first ATP title and became the first South Korean to win on the ATP Tour and only the second Korean to win a tour-level title in the Open era since 2003 Sydney champion Hyung-Taik Lee.[5] As a result, he reached a new career-high of No. 57 on 27 September 2021.[6]
2022: Maiden ATP 500 singles semifinal, Australian Open doubles third round
At the Australian Open, he won his first match defeating Holger Rune in five sets. He lost in the second round to Denis Shapovalov in a tight five-set match with three tiebreaks.
At Wimbledon, he lost in the first round to the top seed and eventual champion, Novak Djokovic, in four sets.
Ranked No. 120 at the Japan Open, he reached the quarterfinals for a second time at the ATP 500-level defeating sixth seed Alex de Minaur and Mackenzie McDonald.[7] He defeated Pedro Martínez to reach his first ATP 500-level semifinal. As a result, he moved more than 30 positions up in the rankings, back into the top 100.
2023–2024: Second title won as lucky loser, hiatus, Olympics debut
He won his second career ATP title in Adelaide, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets. In doing so, he became the first Korean to win multiple ATP titles.[8] He became the first lucky loser to reach the final in Adelaide's tournament history and the first to win an ATP Tour title since Marco Cecchinato in Budapest in 2018, and the tenth lucky loser champion overall.[9]
In December 2024, Kwon announced that he would step away from tennis and fulfill his mandatory military obligation, which began in January 2025.
Personal life
On May 22, 2023, it was confirmed that Kwon is dating singer Yubin of Wonder Girls.[10] On October 5, 2023, Yubin's agency confirmed their break-up.[11]
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
^Park Yoon-jin (May 22, 2023). "원더걸스 유빈, 9살 연하 韓 테니스 간판 권순우와 열애 인정…"좋은 감정으로 만남 중" [공식]" [Wonder Girls' Yubin admits to dating Kwon Soon-woo, a Korean tennis player who is 9 years younger... "Meeting with good feelings" [Official]] (in Korean). My Daily. Retrieved May 22, 2023 – via Naver.
^Jung, Hee-yeon (October 5, 2023). "유빈-권순우 결별 "응원하는 친구로 남기로" [공식입장]" [Yubin and Kwon Soonwoo break up, “We will remain as supportive friends” [Official statement]] (in Korean). SportsDonga. Retrieved October 5, 2023 – via Naver.