Kwon Soon-Woo “Sweet year, running towards the 3rd major and Olympic medals”

Kwon Soon-woo (24, Dangjin City Hall), 95th in the men’s tennis world ranking, begins a new season. This is the first season in which he, a’small star’, breathes with the new coach of the same age, Yu Daniel, 35. He was in the’life season’ with coach Lim Gyu-tae (39) last year, and he runs again toward his grand goal of’advancing to the 3rd round of major competitions and the Tokyo Olympics medal’ this year.

Kwon Soon-woo conveyed his determination and goals for the new season through a video press conference on the 5th (Korean time). Two days later, he recently entered the United States to participate in the Men’s Professional Tennis (ATP) Tour Delay Beach Open (total prize money of $349,000), which will open in Delray Beach, Florida. “Because I completed winter training very well, I was in very good shape. “It’s good”, expressing confidence, “I’m aiming to advance to the 3rd round of major tournaments and the Tokyo Olympics medal this year.” The Tokyo Olympics are highly likely to advance only after reaching the top 70 in the world rankings, so raising the ranking is a prerequisite for the first half of the year. All.

In September of last year, Kwon Soon-woo recorded the first major singles final victory in his personal career at the US Open in the aftermath of the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) and climbed to the second round. After Lee Hyung-taek (45) and Jung Hyun (25), he became the third Korean player to win major tournaments. It is not just an impossible dream to advance to the third round, which he set as one of his goals this year. Kwon Soon-woo said, “I couldn’t continue the uptrend due to the spread of Corona 19 last year, but I think I have earned time to build my body.” “Because I am not a player with a larger height and physique than other players, weight training to increase speed and power in winter training I focused on it.”

First of all, the first tournament of the season, the Delray Beach Open, is an important first step in the process of reaching this year’s goal. If you pass the first round of the match, there is a possibility that you will meet Nam Ji-seong (27, Sejong City Hall) in the second round. After the Delray Beach Open, they will move to Australia in the middle of this month, self-isolate for two weeks, and compete in two competitions in Melbourne. Kwon Soon-woo explained, “Athletes participating in the Melbourne tournament will move from Florida to Melbourne all at once over 14 and 15 days. During the self-help period (according to local quarantine guidelines), they will start practicing with one specific player.” did.

Regarding the goal of advancing to the third round of the major tournament, Kwon Soon-woo said, “I have never won more than one win in the singles finals of the major tournament, so if I set the goal too large, I would be disappointed when I could not achieve it. I got it.” He said, “If we can go up to the third round in the Australian Open, I think there will be better results.” At the same time, he said, “I have a new breath with Coach Danielle this year, and I want to achieve all the goals I want to achieve.”

Coach Daniel Yu, who attended the press conference with him on this day, said to Kwon Soon-woo, “I hope I don’t get injured.” “Kwon Sun-woo’s speed is fast and his defensive ability is good,” said Yoo coach Kwon Soon-woo, who had experience confrontation during Mapo-go, and who worked as a player under Dangjin City Hall. “We trained in the direction of aggressively switching speed from winter training. I did.” “I think that if you play aggressively, you will be able to raise your rankings, and you will be able to survive when confronting the top players.”

Kim Hyung-jun reporter [email protected]

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