Former Novak Djokovic slayer Hyeon Chung set to make comeback at Seoul Challenger
Hyeon Chung, arguably the biggest tennis name from South Korea so far, is officially making a comeback on the ATP Tour. Chung caught everyone's attention by beating 10-time champion Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the fourth round of the 2018 Australian Open. Since then, he has been battling hard with injuries and has had a couple of failed comebacks returning to the sport.
The bespectacled star announced his arrival to the tennis world by winning the 2017 Next Gen Finals. He made further history by becoming the first ever tennis player from Korea to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam at the 2018 Australian Open, where he beat the likes of Alexander Zverev and Djokovic before losing against Roger Federer.
He carried on his great form by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2018 Indian Wells and Miami Masters, which still stands as his best performances at the Masters 1000 tournaments.
With Chung reaching a career-high ranking of 19, a lot was expected from him to take Asian tennis, especially South Korean tennis, further forward on the world stage. However, he has been unfortunate with injuries since then and as a result, his rankings have gone down and down despite some occasional wins on the tour. The 26-year-old is currently unranked and last played a professional singles match in the qualifying rounds of the 2020 French Open.
With fans losing hope about his return to action, there is some good news for them as Chung will be competing in singles at the upcoming Seoul Open Challenger in April. It has been confirmed by the tournament organizers that he will receive a wild card for the Challenger 100 event taking place in his home country.
Previously, Hyeon Chung finished as the runner-up of the tournament back in 2015, where he lost to Japan's Go Soeda in the summit clash.
Hyeon Chung to build on doubles comeback in late 2022
Hyeon Chung made a mini comeback to the field in late 2022 when he took part in the Korea Open, albeit in the doubles category along with his compatriot Kwon Soon-Woo.
The pair reached the semifinals with a couple of wins before losing against eventual finalists Nicolas Barrientos and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela. The Korean prodigy admitted in an interview leading up to the tournament that he is just happy to be playing again after going through lots of struggles with injuries and rigoruous rehab for a couple of years.
Although Chung has to rebuild his rankings from scratch, playing back-to-back tournaments without any inuries will be the primary and immediate goal and he will look to gradually build on from there.
In what promises to be a decent competing field, two of the top 100 ATP ranked players in the form of Jordan Thompson from Australia and an in-form Chris Eubanks from the USA are also taking part in the 2023 Seoul Open Challenger tournament.