Korea Davis Cup Tennis Round of 16 'Red Light'... 2 Losses to Belgium

Kwon Soon-woo and Hong Seong-chan Both Lose in 1-2 Singles Matches

Kwon Soon-woo's match on the 4th (Photo by Yonhap News / Provided by Korea Tennis Association)

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The possibility of the South Korean men's tennis team advancing to the round of 16 in the Davis Cup, an international team competition, has become uncertain.

On the 4th, South Korea lost both the first and second singles matches on the first day of the 2023 Davis Cup final qualifying round (best of five: 4 singles and 1 doubles) against Belgium at the Olympic Park Indoor Tennis Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul.

With two losses, South Korea must win the doubles match and both the third and fourth singles matches on the 5th to advance to the Davis Cup Finals, which corresponds to the world round of 16, for the second consecutive year following last year.

In the first singles match, ace Kwon Soon-woo (ranked 61, Dangjin City Hall) was defeated in a comeback by Zizou Bergs (ranked 115) 1-2 (6-1, 4-6, 6-7<6-8>). In the second singles match, Hong Seong-chan (ranked 237, Sejong City Hall) lost 0-2 (4-6, 2-6) to Belgium's ace David Goffin (ranked 41), who was once ranked as high as 7th in the world in 2017.

The doubles and the third and fourth singles matches will continue from 11 a.m. on the 5th. In doubles, the pair Song Min-kyu (ranked 147 in doubles, KDB Industrial Bank) and Nam Ji-sung (ranked 152, Sejong City Hall) will face Belgium's Yoran Vliegen (ranked 53) and Sander Gill? (ranked 55).

If South Korea loses the doubles match, Belgium's victory will be confirmed. The third singles match will be a showdown between Kwon Soon-woo and Goffin, and if it goes to the final fourth singles match, the winner will be decided in the match between Hong Seong-chan and Bergs.

However, since Belgium leads in rankings for all three matches scheduled on the 5th, South Korea is effectively pushed to the brink. The winner of this qualifying round will advance to the Davis Cup Finals, corresponding to the world round of 16, while the loser will be relegated to World Group Play-offs 1.

South Korea has advanced to the world round of 16 four times so far?in 1981, 1987, 2007, and 2022. This year, South Korea is challenging the Davis Cup world round of 16 for the first time in its tennis history for two consecutive years.

This year's round of 16 already includes Australia and Canada, who reached the finals last year, as well as wildcard entries Italy and Spain. The remaining 12 spots will be filled by the winners of the matches between South Korea and Belgium, Croatia and Austria, France and Hungary, the United States and Uzbekistan, Germany and Switzerland, Colombia and the United Kingdom, Norway and Serbia, Chile and Kazakhstan, Sweden and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands and Slovakia, Finland and Argentina, and Portugal and the Czech Republic.