PREVIEW Korea Open Final: Top seeds Iga Swiatek and Ekaterina Alexandrova set for title clash

The start of the Asian swing at the WTA 500 Korea Open had no major surprises on the road to the final. We will have Iga Swiatek and Ekaterina Alexandrova—the first and second seeds, respectively—facing each other for the most important title at the beginning of this Asian tour.

After being upgraded from a WTA 250 to a WTA 500 tournament, this year the event featured the presence of the world No. 1 and 6-time major champion, Iga Swiatek, as the main favorite. She advanced by barely dropping any games throughout the tournament, and her final match will be against the 2022 champion, Alexandrova.

Swiatek has found a remarkable level of form at the Korea Open and has reached her fourth final of the season, just at the start of the Asian swing. Despite her loss in the US Open quarterfinals, Swiatek has shown that she has not lost her rhythm, earning three convincing victories and conceding only 10 games in total in her wins against Sorana Cirstea (6-3, 6-2), two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova (6-0, 6-3), and 19-year-old teenager Maya Joint (6-0, 6-2).

With this, Swiatek will play the 30th final of her career, with a 24-5 record. A large part of Swiatek's success this week has been due to the consistency of her return game, with a total of 18 breaks in the three matches she played and conceding her serve only five times in total. Although her serve was not at its best against Cirstea and Krejcikova (with only a 55% first-serve-in), things improved against Joint in the semifinals, and the Pole arrives in unbeatable form for the title match.

It has certainly been a profitable week for the Pole, who is not defending any points throughout the Asian swing, so she can earn a good number of points to close the gap on Aryna Sabalenka and fight to finish the year at the top of the rankings.

At this point, we are no longer surprised by the consistency with which Ekaterina Alexandrova has achieved deep runs throughout the year. The Russian is positioned as the world No. 11, and for a long time, she has been in the fight to enter the top 10 for the first time in her career. Likewise, she has not had trouble against lower-ranked opponents, and this week as the second seed, she overcame every test on her way to the final, defeating Lois Boisson (4-6, 6-2, 6-2), Ella Seidel (6-2, 6-3), and Katerina Siniakova (6-4, 6-2).

Alexandrova is going for her 10th final, with a 5-4 record so far (1-3 in WTA 500s). This year, she already has 41 wins in 60 matches, including a title at the Linz Open, where she defeated Dayana Yastremska. This time, however, the challenge is greater against the 6-time major champion Swiatek, whom Alexandrova has still surprised a couple of times.

The two players faced each other less than a month ago in the US Open Round of 16, where Swiatek won a convincing 6-3, 6-1 victory. It was the second time they faced each other this year, after Swiatek also took the win on the grass courts of the Bad Homburg Open in June.

The overall head-to-head record is 5-2 in favor of Swiatek (3-2 on hard courts). The Pole's level has been on the rise in recent months, with convincing performances since the clay-court swing ended in the first half of the year, reaching at least the final in four of the last six tournaments she has played. Swiatek's impressive record in finals (24-5) makes her the favorite, although Alexandrova is always ready for a surprise.