Tennis Player Kwon Soon-woo Retires in 3rd Set of US Open Qualifiers 1st Round

South Korean male tennis player Kwon Soon-woo (ranked 150th in the world, Chungnam Sports Council) suffered a retirement loss in the first round of the qualifiers for the major 2026 US Open tournament.

Kwon faced Dusan Lajovic (ranked 167th in the world, Serbia) in the men's singles qualifying first round at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York today (KST, August 26) and was forced to retire during the third set.

Kwon won the first set 4-6, but dropped the second set 5-7. He was trailing 1-3 in the third set and, struggling physically, decided to abandon the match.

This appears to be the aftermath of a grueling schedule that saw him play in five consecutive tournaments following his military discharge last month, including Wimbledon in the United Kingdom, the Los Cabos Open in Mexico, the Lexington Challenger in the United States, the Cincinnati Open in the United States, and the Quebec City Challenger in Canada.

Kwon had previously retired in the second round of the main draw at the Quebec City Challenger, where he had advanced to the main draw after passing through the first and second qualifying rounds.

Lajovic is a 36-year-old veteran whose career-high ranking once reached world No. 23.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.