FALLING 24 hours behind on the schedule due to a washed out quarter finals day, players returned to the court in the Korea Open to double-up with both the quarter finals and semi-finals yesterday. The WTA 500 event saw six singles matches played all up with the two finalists – Beatriz Haddad Maia and Daria Kasatkina – both winning two matches on the penultimate day.

Kasatkina spent barely any time on court, with opponent Emma Raducanu retiring after just one set and 32 minutes to move through to the last four 6-1, before a relatively surprising comfortable win over fellow Russian, Diana Shnaider. Kasatkina won the battle 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 17 minutes to make it one hour and 49 minutes on court during the day.

By comparison, Haddad Maia spent and hour and 47 minutes in her semi-final alone. Despite her opponent Veronika Kudermetova winning only one more game than Shnaider, the match went for a further 30 minutes. It is fair to say the Brazilian will not be the Kudermetova’s favourite person at the moment, also knocking out younger sister Polina Kudermetova in the quarter finals, 6-2 6-1.

The other quarter finals saw Veronika Kudermetova defeat Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova 7-5 6-3, while Shnaider reached the last four via a tough victory over Marta Kostyuk. The Korea Open final between Haddad Maia and Kasatkina is scheduled for 5pm AEST today.

Top seed Kasatkina will go in as favourite but said she was very much wary of third seed Haddad Maia.

“[Haddad Maia] never gives up, and she’s an amazing player,” Kasatkina said. 

“I have to prepare well for this match,” the No.1 seed added. “But for the moment, I’m just enjoying myself, enjoying being in the final. A little bit of joy now, and then come back to the office tomorrow.”

The final marks Haddad Maia’s second at the tournament, with a seven-year drought between finals after going down to Jelena Ostapenko in the 2017 edition.

AROUND THE WORLD

German veteran Laura Siegemund overcame surprise semi-finalist, Dutch qualifier Arianne Hartono in Hua Hin to reach the Thailand Open final. The German won 6-3 6-3 and wil take on Rebecca Sramkova after the Slovakian beat Slovenian Tamara Zidansek, 6-4 6-2.

In the ATP 250 Chengdu Open, local hope Juncheng Shang shrugged off Russian Roman Safiullin in an epic three-setter 5-7 6-3 6-3 to move into the quarter finals. Joining him was Italian bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti and experienced duo Alexander Bublik and Adrian Mannarino.

At Hangzhou, another local hope in Zhizhen Zhang stormed into the last eight with a dominant 6-3 6-0 smashing of Italian Mattia Bellucci. Meanwhile Croatian Marin Cilic wound back the clock with a 6-4 6-1 triumph over Yoshihito Nishioka, while Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena also got up. The massive talking point out of the day was Japanese qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama stunning top seed Holger Rune in an hour and 40 minutes, 7-5 6-4.