Top seeds Iga Swiatek fell in the WTA 500 Korea Open presented by Motiva Final, and won her quarter and semi -final after bad weather had played them both on Saturday, but only needed a combined time of two and a half hours to continue.
I’m glad I’m back in the final here in Seoul. It would be such a great achievement to win again here, but tomorrow a super difficult match will be. The final is always different, so I just go on the field and try to do my best, and let’s see how things are going. Ekaterina Alexandrova
The Polish six-fold Grand Slam champion has moved Barbora Krejcikova from the Czech Republic, 6-0 6-3, in a quarterfinals from Friday due to heavy rain, and then went back to the court to the Maya Joint of Blitz Australia, 6-0 6-2.
“I just concentrated on myself, and on the goals I had before, and kept doing what I did during the entire tournament, because it worked,” said Swiatek “The final is supposed to be the most difficult, and it always produces a different kind of stress, so I’m just happy that I have already played solid matches here.”
The World No 2 was clinically in both games, when she moved to her 5th final of the year, where she will be confronted with the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova on Sunday.
The no 2-seeds took out the German qualification Ella Seidel, 6-2 6-3, in her quarterfinals on Saturday morning and then defeated Czech Katerina Siniakova, 6-4 6-2, in the other semi-final later on day 6 of the Seoul event.
Swiatek was completely businesslike from start to finish in both games and played with laser focus.
Krejcikova had achieved a stunning victory against the British Emma Raducanu in the last 16, but could not find her magic against Swiateek.
It was expected that it would be a competitive quarterfinals, but Swiatek dominated from the start and placed the former Grand Slam champion in the first set.
After the trade asked in the second breaks, the 24-year-old pole broke for a 4-3 lead and closed the game in 83 minutes.
After a short break, Swiatek returned to the court to be confronted in their first career meeting in rising star Maya Joint.
Joint had made the No. 3 seed, Clara Tauson from Denmark, earlier in the quarterfinals in the day of the region, also through a score of 6-0 6-3, but the 19-year-old Run ended in the last 4 as Swiatek, not investigated by the fast Turn-Around, delivered a new commander in the final performance.
It was another case that Swiatek did not waste time in doing control over her opponent, breaking to love in the opening match and only needed 25 minutes to have Bagel Joint in the first set.
The Aussie kept Serve to start the second to finally get on the board, but Swiatek won 4 straight matches to go up a set and a double break.
Joint showed further signs of life by turning a breaking point later in the set, but Swiateek won the last 2 games and ends the game with a smash on the net.
Swiatek, whose rower father Tomasz Poland represented in the Men’s four -time Sculls event at the 1988 Olympic Games, hopes to mark its first performance in the South Korean capital with its 3rd trophy of the season.
It marks Swiatek’s 4th individual final of the season, all since June, and this year she is 2-1 in champion matches, with titles at Wimbledon and the Cincinnati Open and 24-5 in her career.
The World No 2 also wants to close the gap on the top of Aryna Sabalenka, who withdrew from the China open planned to start next week in Beijing after an injury during her run to the US Open title.
No 2 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova had to pass Ella Seidel and Katerina Siniakova to reach the Korea Open Final for the second time, after he had defeated Jelena Ostapenko for the title here in 2022
© The Min-G/Getty images
The next for 6 times Grand Slam Champion Swiatek is Alexandrova, who defeated Siniakova in the other 4 meeting.
Siniakova previously reached the semi-final with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Suzan Lamens, but was inflamed by Alexandrova.
Alexandrova started her day with a 6-2, 6-3 quarter-final victory on the German qualifying match Ella Seidel in 1 hour and 14 minutes. Although the score suggests a routine victory, it was anything but.
In her first game of the day, Alexandrova was confronted with 11 breaking points, which was more than she generated against Seidel, but the difference was in how much each saved, 8 of 11, while the German saw only 4 of 10 in a match with 9 Pauges from Servee, including 6 in the opening set.
If Alexandrova, the World No 11, expected her way to another final in Seoul to become easier in her next game, she was mistaken because Siniakova, a different qualification, had made a strong run through the main table.
After the trade in the first 5 games, Alexandrova first struck and broke for a 4-2 lead, but Siniakova responded immediately with its own break, but was undone by a double mistakes on the set point, which handed the first set to the No. 2 Seed.
The Czech regrouped quickly, break to start the second and jumped to a 2-0 lead, but from there the game followed a well-known pattern.
Alexandrova hit 3-out-6 on breakpoints, while Siniakova, who started to cramp late in the game, converted none of her 4 chances, causing the Russian to go home with the last 6 games to complete the victory within an hour and 40 minutes.
The final of Sunday is Alexandrova’s 3rd of the season, and they have all been at the WTA 500 level, won the title in Linz and ending as second in Monterrey.
It also marks its 2nd Korea Open Final, after he has defeated Jelena Ostapenko for the title here in 2022.
“I’m glad I’m back in the final here in Seoul,” said Alexandrova after the game. “It would be such a great achievement to win here again, but tomorrow a super difficult match will be.
“The final is always different, so I’m just going on the field and try to do my best, and let’s see how things are going.”
For the first time since 2022, the final contains the top two seeds, with Swiatek and Alexandrova on their way to Square, who are not strangers for each other, who have met 7 times in their career, including 3 times this season.
Swiatek leads the head-to-head 5-2 and has both won of their 2025 meetings, most recently in straight sets at the US Open, while the last Wi of Alexandrova came to Miami in the series last year.
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