Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea beat Jack Draper of the Great Britain 7-6 6-7 6-3 in the first semifinal of the Adelaide International 2 on Friday. The match went on for two hours and 45 minutes, as the 25-year-old Korean emerged victorious after an intense and prolonged battle.
Now, we will take a look at two keys to the match:
How Soonwoo Kwon Beat Jack Draper in the Adelaide Semifinal
#1. Kwon dictated terms with his forehand:
Kwon was quite impressive while hitting his powerful forehand throughout the match and dictated terms in a lot of rallies with it. He was particularly lethal with his inside-out forehand that won him a lot of points.
Draper, meanwhile, kept hitting his forehand with a lot of top spin, which caused the Korean some problems on a high-bouncing surface. Still, it also gave Kwon enough time to go around his backhand to hit his inside-out forehand, as the ball travelled to him with less speed.
Kwon broke the Brit in the ninth game of the first set, but Draper broke back to level the score. A tie-break followed and the Korean prevailed.
#2. Draper bounced back in the second set, but Kwon’s lethal forehand sealed the deal:
Draper’s first serve ratio improved in the second set from a modest 53% in the first. The Brit looked in command whenever he could get his first serve in. However, his return was not good enough for the most part, and he provided Kwon with a lot of short balls for the Korean to dispatch them.
Kwon also hit a number of approaches well before going to the net to finish points with neatly-placed volleys. Draper hit his forehands a lot flatter from the second set onwards to stop providing the short balls to the Korean.
Still, Kwon came up with his blistering forehands whenever he had a chance. He saved five break points in the third game of the second set to stay ahead, but could not break Draper in the set. Another tie-break followed, and the Brit won it 7-2, with the Koreans backhand letting him down on a few occasions.
Kwon, however, got the decisive break in the final set and then kept holding his serve to finish the match off. The Korean hit 48 winners in the match, with the majority of them coming off his forehand.
In comparison, Draper hit 34 winners including 18 aces. Kwon also won 20 net points in the match and although his high-risk approach meant that he committed 42 unforced errors against Draper’s 27, the Korean did enough with his forehand to win the match.
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