Korean teen loses in men's final match

By Do Je-hae

Korean teen tennis player Hong Seong-chan lost 0-2 in the Australian Open Junior men’s singles final, Saturday.

At the Melbourne Park Tennis Courts, Hong yielded the junior men’s title to top seed Roman Safiullin of Russia. Had Hong won, he would have become the first Korean to claim the junior men’s singles title at a major competition. Jeon Mi-ra (Wimbledon, 1994), Lee Jong-min (Australian Open, 1995), Kim Sun-yong (Australian Open, 2005) and Chung Hyeon (Wimbledon, 2013) were all runner-ups.

Safiullin, who had taken an early lead, broke Hong’s serve in a tight next-to-last game of the opening set despite Hong’s reprisal at 5-4, the Russian held his serve to win the set. In a first set repeat, Safiullin once again broke Hong’s serve in the second set opener and then, at 6-6, won the tiebreaker to set up a 7-5, 7-6 (2) win over the 17-year-old Korean.

Safiullin has thereby become the first Russian to win the Australian Open junior boys’ title.

“It was a very tough match,” he said after the match. “My opponent was very good. He has a good, precise serve and returns well.”

Hong, after the match, said that he enjoyed the experience.

“I feel like I should have come off stronger in the first set,” he said. “But I think I played well. It was a good experience.

Hong entered the junior men’s decider after a straight-sets semifinal win on Friday against Australia’s Akira Santillan. The Korean won 2-0 (6-2, 7-6).

Ranked ninth in the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) junior ranking, Hong had also secured a win at the Traralgon ITF Junior International in Australia last week.