Soon Woo Kwon became the first South Korean tennis player for 18 years to win a men’s tour title as he beat James Duckworth 7-6 (6), 6-3 in the final of the Astana Open on Sunday.
In his first tour final, Kwon saved three set points in the first-set tiebreak after going 6-3 down before winning five consecutive points to take the set.
Duckworth broke Kwon in the first game of the second set but struggled to hold his own serve, landing just 33% of first serves in the second set, and was broken twice in reply.
Hyung-Taik Lee was the last South Korean to win a tour event when he beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final of the Sydney International in 2003.
Chung Hyeon won the NextGen Finals in 2017, but that high-profile competition for younger players wasn’t a full tour event and didn’t offer ranking points.
Duckworth was playing in his first tour-level final and hadn’t dropped a set in the tournament before the final.