First main-draw appearance at Wimbledon in two years

Kwon Soon-woo competes in the men's singles round of 32 at the 2026 Gwangju Open International Men's Challenger Tour tennis tournament. [Yonhap]
Kwon Soon-woo competes in the men's singles round of 32 at the 2026 Gwangju Open International Men's Challenger Tour tennis tournament. [Yonhap]

Kwon Soon-woo (world No. 200, Armed Forces Athletic Corps) failed to advance to the third round of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships men's singles.

Kwon lost in straight sets to Tommy Paul (No. 25, United States) 0-3 in the second round Tuesday at the All England Club in London, on the tournament's third day of play. He could not overcome a winless head-to-head record against Paul, falling to 0-3 in their series, and will have to wait for another chance at reaching the third round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in his career.

Kwon had entered the main draw after winning all three qualifying matches, then swept Martin Landaluce (No. 60, Spain) 3-0 in the first round — his first main-draw victory at Wimbledon since 2021, five years ago.

Once ranked as high as No. 52 in the world, Kwon is South Korea's leading men's tennis player, having won the 2021 Astana Open and the 2023 Adelaide International. Injuries and mandatory military service dragged his ranking outside the top 300 earlier this year. He signaled a comeback in April, winning back-to-back Challenger titles at the Gwangju Open and the Wuxi Open in China, and capped his resurgence by qualifying for Wimbledon's main draw for the first time in two years.

The gap in class proved difficult to bridge. Kwon fought hard in the first set, landing 70 percent of his first serves, but Paul's nine aces and 13 winners overwhelmed him, and Kwon dropped his opening service game to cede the early momentum.

In the second set, the two exchanged breaks before Paul pulled away 7-4 in the tiebreak to take the set. The third set followed a similar pattern, with Paul breaking twice to close out the match. The defeat left Kwon with a 0-3 career record against Paul.


won@heraldcorp.com