Soonwoo Kwon has switched from Head to Yonex racquets. The South Korean star won his second title at the Adelaide Open earlier year and became the first Korean player to win multiple ATP titles.

Kwon broke into the top 100 in world rankings for the first time in 2019. He won his first ATP title at the Astana Open in 2021. At the Japan Open, he reached his first ATP 500 semifinals in 2022.

Soonwoo Kwon has represented South Korea in Davis Cup. In the group stage match against Canada in 2022, he scored his first top-20 win against Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Tennis players have strange rituals. Whether it’s lining up water bottles or the number of bounces before a serve, every player has a ritual that they live by.

At the Qatar Open, Australian tennis player Christopher O’Connell was seen rubbing the string on his racquet with balls he had brought onto the court. After he finished conditioning the strings, he put the balls back in his racquet.

It’s not clear what O’Connell was trying to do. Maybe, he wasn’t happy with the string tension on his racquet. Or the logo paint on the strings was still too wet.

That certainly was a strange ritual but it’s not the first time it’s been done on the court. Retired Spanish player Ana Medina Garrigues did during her playing years but she used the balls that were going to be used for play.