Looking forward to sorties in the preliminaries with the protected ranking…’Warming up’ at the UK Turf Challenger
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ahn Hong-seok = ‘Australian Open Semifinal Legend’ Jeong Hyeon (27), who returned to the tennis court after overcoming a long injury, will challenge Wimbledon.
According to Jung Hyun’s management company, Jung Hyun is trying to compete in the men’s singles at Wimbledon, which opens on July 3.
An official from the management company said, “Jung-hyeon, who has regained some confidence in the competition held in Korea, is preparing to compete in Wimbledon.”
It is thanks to the Protected Ranking (PR) system that Jeong-hyeon, who has no singles ranking since leaving the court for more than a year and a half since the French Open in September 2020, can promote Wimbledon.
PR refers to a case where a player whose ranking went down because he was unable to participate in a tournament due to an injury is recognized for his ranking before the injury and participates in the tournament.However, there is a limit to the number of competitions in which PR can be used.
Jung Hyeon’s PR is 159th, which is a ranking that allows him to aim for a Wimbledon qualifying round.
Chung Hyun has a good memory of making his name known to the world by winning the runner-up in the 2013 Wimbledon Junior Men’s Singles.
It is the first time since 2015 that he participated in the Wimbledon adult tournament, when he was eliminated in the first round.
Prior to Wimbledon, the plan is to improve the adaptability to the grass court by participating in the challenger tournament held in England.
First of all, on the 5th of next month, Jung-hyun’s name is on both the preliminary list and the preliminary list for the Surbiton Trophy competition.
Then, at the Ross Sea Open held in Nottingham on the 12th, Jung Hyeon was listed on the list for the finals.
Jung Hyeon emerged as a star by reaching the semifinals at the 2018 Australian Open singles, the best ever for a Korean player, but since then, he has not been able to play consistently due to a back injury.
Since the 2020 French Open, he has focused on rehabilitation.
Jung Hyeon returned to the court at the Korea Open in September 2022 in a doubles group with Kwon Soon-woo (Dangjin City Hall), but was unable to participate in the Seoul Open Challenger due to his condition worsening again while trying to compete in singles.
Jung Hyun returned to the singles match after 1 year and 7 months at the Seoul Open Challenger held last month, and participated in the singles match at the subsequent Busan Open.
However, as he was eliminated in the first round in both competitions, the hunt for a ‘court return win’ failed.