Hong Seong-chan (Sejong City Hall, world No. 194) won an unbeaten set and advanced to the second round to face No. 1 seed Max Purcell (Australia, world No. 89).
Hong Seong-chan defeated Ito Tatsuma 먹튀검증(Japan, world No. 578) with a set score of 2-0 (6-3 6-2) in the first round of the Seoul Open Challenger men’s singles held at the Olympic Park Tennis Stadium in Seoul on the 26th.
Hong Sung-chan failed to advance to the top round after being blocked by Tatsuma in the same tournament in 2016 and 2018, but Hong Sung-chan, who ranked 194th this week, showed a different appearance from five years ago.
Hong Sung-chan put in 7 serve aces against Tatsuma and recorded a high first serve scoring rate of 79%. He defended against all 3 break crises and, conversely, overpowered Tatsuma by succeeding in breaking 3 times.
Hong Seong-chan was once defeated by Purcell in the second round with a set score of 0-2 in last year’s Busan Open Challenger Qualifier. This is the first time the final match has been held.
Purcell is a player with strength in doubles enough to win the Wimbledon doubles last year, but is also active in singles by winning three Challenger Tour events this year.
Meanwhile, Lee Deok-hee (Sejong City Hall, world No. 767), who passed the preliminaries and advanced to the finals, and Lee Jae-moon (KDB Industrial Bank, world No. 649), who received a wild card, defeated James Duckworth (World No. 102) and Mark Polmans in the first round, respectively. (Australia, 209th in the world) and was eliminated.