The Hana Bank Korea Open 2023, the only Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour event in Korea, kicks off today at the Olympic Park Tennis Center in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Top-seeded Jessica Pegula (No. 4-USA) will be joined by Jelena Ostapenko (No. 17-LAT) and Sofia Kenin (No. 31-USA).Pegula is in the midst of a career-best No. 3 ranking this year. She reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year and won the Canadian Open, a WTA 1000 event. Pegula is returning to the Korea Open for the first time in four years since 2019. Pegula, who entered the tournament ranked 78th and was knocked out in the first round of the main draw, will be looking to show Korean fans how far she has come in four years. Pegula has a Korean mother and a wealthy father.
Ostapenko is a Coria Open ‘regular’ .After winning the French Open in 2017, Ostapenko first appeared at the Korea Open three months later, garnering a lot of attention, and since then, she has played in front of Korean fans for three consecutive years . 카지노사이트킹 Ostapenko has also been on the rise this year, reaching the quarterfinals of two majors. She lifted the trophy once at the Rossie Classic in England in June. Ostapenko is seeded second in the tournament .Kenin won the Australian Open in 2020 and was runner-up at the French Open .The highest-ranked South Korean player, Jang Soo-jeong (164th – Daegu City Hall), will take on Kennin in the first round.
Jang has met Kenin once before, at the 2018 Newport Beach Open, where she won 2-0.Han Na-rae (No. 233-Bucheon City Hall) and Baek Da-yeon (No. 573-NH Nonghyup Bank) will compete as wildcards. Han will take on thirty-two-year-old veteran Arancha Ruth (No. 51-Netherlands), while Paik will face Ostapenko in the first round. Venus Williams (406th-ranked USA) and Beatriz Adad Maia (19th-ranked Brazil), who were initially announced by the organizers, will not be participating in the tournament. The Hana Bank Korea Open, a WTA 250 event, will be promoted to the next level of WTA 500 next year, bringing more top-level stars to Korea.