Korea Open Round-up: Early success for Lois Boisson, Sofia Kenin, Eva Lys and Maya Joint in Seoul

Day One is in the books in what is a stacked line-up this week at the Korea Open especially when you take into account the fact that Pegula, Rybakina, Paolini among others are playing Billie Jean King Cup Finals instead. It was the early first round action on Monday with some well known names opening their accounts.

Starting the Korea Open, Lois Boisson has had one of the best rises of this season. She reached the French Open semi-final on debut after her debut last season was ripped away due to an ACL injury the week before. She also hit prominence for deodorant gate with Harriet Dart barely winning a game since she courted mass controversy. While Boisson has continued to glide.

A first round exit aside at the US Open, she won a maiden title and is now well inside the top 50. For a player who has only just burst onto the scene too she is only 22 and so has huge room to grow. She won the last match of Monday pretty emphatically too. She saw off Yeon Woo Ku, a Korean wildcard 6-2, 6-1. She now returns to face off against Ekaterina Alexandrova. The second seed in Seoul.

Given that she is just outside the world's top 40, Boisson perhaps is the worst player to draw out of those unseeded. Daria Kasatkina will face off against Katerina Siniakova. The Czech ace won through against Sohyun Park, another Korean wildcard 6-2, 6-2. They also sit in that section.

Beatriz Haddad Maia will look tomorrow to book a tie with Ella Seidel then most of the bottom section will be locked off. Maya Joint has endured multiple title wins in 2025 and has become one of the next crop of rising stars alongside Andreeva as the only one in the top 100 as a teenager for a time.

Of course Mboko and Iva Jovic who won Guadalajara have now joined them in this party. But she will face Sofia Kenin in a standout second round tie. Joint seems to perform superbly outside of the majors so is always a danger and is a Grand Slam run away from stringing it all together. She saw off Linda Fruhvirtova earlier today 6-4, 7-6 and now faces Kenin. The former Australian Open champion though had to come through a real tough examination against the always tricky Laura Siegemund.

She won through 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 to book her spot against Joint. While Eva Lys comedically posted videos of herself falling flat on her back joking about her crush walking by on her Instagram story but the rising German saw off a tough test in Ashlyn Krueger who a modicum of ease as she won through 6-3, 6-4.

Now it will be Clara Tauson. The third seed has a bye through and will face Lys. The winner faces Joint or Kenin in the Quarter-Finals. Tomorrow sees the top part of the schedule start to be locked off as Iga Swiatek faces either Anastasia Zakharova or Sorana Cirstea. Barbora Krejcikova then could face the winner in the QF. She faces Tatiana Prozorova.

Emma Raducanu who decided to play this instead of Billie Jean King Cup will hope her decision is vindicated. She faces Jaquline Cristian in the first round. She then could face Krejcikova.