South Korea’s men’s tennis team suffered a 0-3 loss to Serbia in the Davis Cup opener
The South Korean men’s national tennis team lost to Serbia in the first match of the Davis Cup Finals 2023, the World Cup of Tennis.
South Korea fell to Serbia 0-3 in the first match of Group C on Wednesday in Valencia, Spain.
The South Koreans, who are competing in the 16-nation Davis Cup Finals for the second straight year, were unable to pick up their first win of the tournament, leaving them with a slim chance of advancing to the quarterfinals, which are reserved for the top two teams in each group.
South Korea will try again to find its first win on Thursday night at 10 p.m. KST against the Czech Republic.
Korea sends Hong Seong-chan (194th-ranked Sejong City Hall) in first singles, Kwon Soon-woo (112th-ranked Dangjin City Hall) in second singles and Nam Ji-sung (126th-ranked Sejong City Hall) and Song Min-kyu (185th-ranked KDB Industrial Bank) in doubles.
Serbia rested No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who won a major-record 24 titles at the US Open, which ended two days ago, and fielded Dusan Lajovic (No. 52), László Zere (No. 37), and Nikola Kacic (No. 62 doubles)-Miomir Ketmanovic (No. 184 doubles).
Hong harassed Rayovic with his tenacious defense and flawless net play.
However, he was unable to break his opponent’s serve and eventually fell 0-2 (4-6, 6-7<3-7>).
Kwon Soon-woo started the match in a dominant fashion against Zere, who was 1-1 in their career meetings.
With Zere committing 13 unforced errors (3 by Kwon) in the first set, Kwon broke her opponent’s fourth service game and eventually saved a set point to take the lead.
However, Jere, who had zero shots in the second set, completely turned the tide, and Kwon Soon-woo fell back to 1-2 (6-4, 2-6, 2-6).
In the final doubles match, with the match already decided, Nam Ji-sung and Song Min-gyu lost 1-2 (6-3, 4-6, 6-7<5-7>) after a third-set tiebreaker.
After the match, Hong said, “If I had to rate myself, I would give myself a 3 out of 10. I thought I could win this match and prepared a lot.” “I’m disappointed with the result and I’m sorry that I couldn’t contribute to the team,” he said.
Kwon Soon-woo said, “I think I lost my nerves at the beginning of the second set and my stamina dropped quickly. Our opponent came out with a different strategy in the second set, so I think we weren’t prepared for it,” said Kwon.
Coach Kim Young-jun said, 카지노사이트킴 “The Czech Republic is not an easy opponent, but I think we have a chance to win if we play as a team like we did today.”
