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South Korean tennis star Kwon Soon-woo lost his calm after suffering a shock defeat in the second round of the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Monday.
Kwon is currently ranked World No. 112 and he was facing a player ranked more than 500 places lower than him, in the form of Thailand’s Samrej Kasidit (World No. 636). In what is the tournament's biggest upset so far, Kasidit defeated the No. 4 seed 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to end his hunt for the gold medal.
The loss was too much to bear for one of the favorites to win the tournament, who let all of his anger out on the court.
Kwon Soon-woo repeatedly smashed his racket into the court and up against the chair, destroying it into pieces and drawing both cheers and boos from the crowd. He also refused to shake hands with the chair umpire or with Kasidit.
Several top men's and women's players are competing at the 2023 Asian Games. On the ATP side, Zhizhen Zhang (No. 1 seed), Yosuke Watanuki (No. 2 seed), and Yibing Wu (No. 3 seed) are all through to the third round. Qinwen Zheng, Lin Zhu, Ankita Raina, and Alexandra Eala are the top four seeds in the women's draw.
As for Kwon Soon-woo, he can still capture a gold medal at the Asian Games as he is in the quarterfinals of the men's doubles with Seong Chan Hong.
A look into Kwon Soon-woo's performances on the ATP tour in 2023
Kwon Soon-woo's 2023 ATP season has been a tale of two halves.
He began the year by winning his second career title at the Adelaide International 2. The former World No. 52 went all the way as a lucky loser, defeating Tomas Machac, Pablo Carreno-Busta, Mikael Ymer, Jack Draper and Roberto Bautista-Agut.
However, he has only won one ATP tour match and competed in just four tour-level tournaments since then.
The 25-year-old bowed out of the Australian Open and the Rotterdam Open in the first round. He won his opening-round contest at the Qatar Open against Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan, before losing to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round.
Kwon did not participate at the Roland Garros and Wimbledon Championships and again crashed out in the opening round of the US Open, his last tour-level appearance. He has played in a few Challenger tournaments this year but has not found much success there, either.
