NUR-SULTAN/STARNBERG, September 26, 2021
Soonwoo Kwon captured his maiden title on the ATP Tour by winning the second edition of the Astana Open held at the National Tennis Center in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
In Sunday’s championship match between two first-time finalists, the 23-year-old South Korean defeated James Duckworth from Australia 7-6(6), 6-3. Kwon withstood 10 aces and broke Duckworth’s serve two times to seal victory in one hour and 35 minutes.
Magnificent 🙌
Kwon Soonwoo wins his first ever ATP Tour Final with a 7-6 6-3 victory over Duckworth at the #AstanaOpen! pic.twitter.com/hXMF0ma7Nc
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) September 26, 2021
“I am really happy to win my first ATP 250 title,” said Kwon, a winner of three ATP Challenger trophies. “I am just really really happy to win today. It was a tough match today against James. He served really well and played very well and I tried to focus every single point.”
Kwon, who beat three seeds en route to the crown, became the second South Korean man to win an ATP Tour title, after 2003 Sydney champion Hyung-Taik Lee. The World No. 82 earned $47,080 in prize money as well as 250 ATP Ranking points.
“It was a fantastic tournament and it has been an honour to play here,” Kwon added. “Thank you to my team and my coach for supporting me.”
South Americans triumph in doubles
Earlier in the day, Santiago Gonzalez from Mexico and Andres Molteni of Argentina claimed their first team title. The top seeds defeated Jonathan Erlich from Israel and Belarusian Andrei Vasilevski 6-1, 6-2. The douubles final lasted 59 minutes.
Gonzalez and Molteni split $17,570 in prize money and pocketed 250 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
As a team, Gonzalez 🇲🇽 and Molteni 🇦🇷 won First ATP doubles title 🏆 (15th for Gonzalez and 7th for Molteni) in Nur-Sultan.
Both won Erlich 🇮🇱/ Vasilevski 🇧🇾 in the final 6:1, 6:2.@atptour @ATPTour_ES pic.twitter.com/TqHtEgyKp8— Astana Open (@ktf_kz) September 26, 2021
