Iga Swiatek has clinched her career's 25th WTA title, winning Sunday's final of the WTA 500 Korea Open in Seoul. The world number two defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova after an exciting three-setter. Swiatek won by 1-6 7-6(3) 7-5 after 2:46 hours of play, coming back after a very poor opening set and facing instant pressure put by the Russian, who played well throughout the whole match despite losing in the decisive moments.
Alexandrova's storming start
The match started perfectly for Alexandrova who gained an early break in the first game. The Russian was putting instant pressure on her favored opponent in every game, confidently holding her own serve. Swiatek was playing very erratically from the start, making easy forehand errors, not being properly calibrated. The Pole quickly changed her racquet in the middle of the first set, but that did not change the overview of that set, easily won by Alexandrova with a score of 6-1 just after 31 minutes. Swiatek raised her level in the second set, getting much more consistent than in the opening one when she committed 14 unforced errors. That did not discourage Alexandrova though, as the Russian came back from an early break, sustaining less pressure on her serve than the Pole in later games of the second set. The Russian was just two points away from the title on Swiatek's serve in the 12th game, but the world number two forced a tiebreak where she ran away with the score since the start and made the match go the full distance.
Swiatek fights through to the title
Alexandrova was the first to break in the third set, but Swiatek leveled in the set which brought quite dirty service games in the decisive stages. Although both players had a decent first serve points won rate (Swiatek's 79% and Alexandrova's 74%) in the third set, their first serve accuracy was less than 50% each. Swiatek won the battle of nerves in the 12th game, getting two match points on her opponent's serve and converting the second one by hitting a forehand winner. It can be said that Swiatek's experience in finals at the top level played the role, as she prevailed despite not playing her A game throughout this match. The Pole faced 30 pressure points (5 fewer than produced by herself) and struggled with her serve, making 9 double faults. The eye test could give an impression that Alexandrova was playing better during longer parts of that match, but it was still not enough to avoid a second consecutive WTA 500 final defeat after losing to Diana Shnaider in Monterrey last month.
Road to the final
Both finalists had a really busy weekend after the whole week being nagged by rain conditions in Seoul. Swiatek and Alexandrova got byes in the opening round as top seeds, and played just one match before the whole quarterfinals and semifinals action got packed for Saturday. The Pole faced no trouble on the road to the title match. She started with a routine victory over Sorana Cirstea and two flashy, confident victories over Barbora Krejcikova and Maya Joint, spending no more than 2 hours on court and serving two bagels to her opponents on Saturday. Alexandrova was also never in danger during any of her matches played before the final in Seoul.
Interestingly, the only set dropped by the Russian on the road to the final happened in the first match against Lois Boisson. The French clay courts specialist achieved her career's maiden outdoor hard courts match victory on WTA Tour level in the first round against the local wild card player, but despite that showed a very good performance in the opening set against Alexandrova. The second seed raised her level since then, winning that match and taking two confident straight set victories over Ella Seidel and Katerina Siniakova on Saturday.
Ranking movements
Swiatek has strengthened her second place in the WTA ranking and reduced her gap to Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA Race to 1577 points. The Belarusian has already announced the withdrawal from next week's WTA 1000 event in Beijing due to suffering minor injury issues sustained during the recently won US Open. That gives Swiatek hope to reduce the gap and make the battle for the world number one spot still alive until the end of the season.
Alexandrova keeps her career's best 11th place in the rankings and 10th place in the WTA Race, closing in a bit in the battle for the WTA Finals spot, being now 615 points behind 8th-placed Elena Rybakina. Maya Joint gains 10 places in the main ranking, advancing to her career's highest 36th spot after the run to the semifinals. Barbora Krejcikova continues her comeback march in the WTA list, moving up by 5 places to 34th, while Lois Boisson moves up by 8 spots to her new career's best 41st. Last year's champion from Seoul - Beatriz Haddad Maia, loses 15 places sliding down to 40th after getting eliminated as early as the round of 16, losing to qualifier Ella Seidel despite having a match point. The German gets rewarded for that victory with reaching the top 100 for the first time in her career, being the new world number 95.