The top-seeded South Korean Chung Hyeon captured the Universiade gold medal in the men's singles tennis Sunday.

Chung defeated No. 2 seed Aslan Karatsev of Russia 2-1 (1-6, 6-2, 6-0) in the final at Yeomju Indoor Tennis Court in Gwangju.

This was the second medal at this Universiade for Chung, the highest-ranked South Korean at No. 79. On Saturday, he and Nam Ji-sung took the silver medal in the men's doubles.

Chung is the third straight men's singles champ from South Korea, after Lim Yong-kyu's back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2013.

Chung also clinched the gold for South Korea in the team competition, which combines points won from medals. A gold medal in the singles is worth 120 points.

Karatsev broke Chung three times en route to claiming the first set 6-1. Chung looked slow-footed and overmatched at times against an array of cross-court winners by the 180th-ranked Russian.

Playing with more energy and consistency in the second set, Chung broke Karatsev and held his serve to go up 2-0. It was now the Russian's turn to appear out of sync, as Chung closed out the set 6-2.

Chung kept the pedal to the metal in the third set and went up 4-0 in the blink of an eye. Another break put Chung ahead 5-0, and the South Korean won the next game to clinch the gold medal.

Chung Hyeon, 19, had a grueling schedule in Gwangju, after coming back from the first round loss at Wimbledon. In the singles, he has had just two days off between July 5 and Sunday.

Chung also played in the men's doubles and won the silver medal with Nam Ji-sung on Saturday. He played five matches in a seven-day stretch starting on July 5.

The player admitted afterward he was exhausted, but he wanted to atone for the close call in the doubles.

"I was really disappointed not to win the gold last night and it just drove me to play harder today," he said. "It's great to win at home. I felt like we lost the doubles because of my mistake, and I wanted to make sure Ji-sung would get to hang the team gold medal around his neck." (Yonhap)