Soon Woo Kwon held off Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-4) in 2 hours and 43 minutes in the final of the Adelaide 2 tournament to claim the second title of his career. Kwon has climbed 32 spots to world number 52 in the ATP Ranking.
The South Korean player, who was playing in the main draw as a lucky loser after losing in the final qualifying round, beat Tomas Machac, Pablo Carreno Busta and Mikael Ymer, Jack Draper and Roberto Bautista Agut.
Kwon earned an early break in the opening game with his groundstrokes. The Asian player did not face any break points in his remaining service games to close out the first set 6-4.
Bautista Agut earned an early break in the second game for 2-0 and held on his service games to win the second set 6-3 forcing the match to the decider.
Both players broke twice in the third set en route to the tie-break. Kwon won four consecutive points from 3-4 down with two mini-breaks to seal the third set.
Kwon is the first South Korean to win multiple ATP Tour titles, following his title in Astana 2021. He has become the first lucky loser to win a tour-level title since Marco Cecchinato in Budapest in 2018. “Since being beaten in the qualifying round, I told myself I have got nothing to lose, and then I came all the way to the finals. I put every energy into it, and that worked. It was a really tough match. I don’t know, I am just really happy to win today. It’s crazy”, said Soon Woo Kwon.
