A pair of little-known South Koreans upset Grand Slam champions in front of their home fans in first-round matches at the Hana Bank Korea Open on Tuesday in Seoul.
Wild card Dayeon Back, down 5-2 in the third set, rallied to beat second-seeded Jelena Ostapenko 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) in two hours, 13 minutes to advance. Su-Jeong Jang ousted Sofia Kenin, the No. 5 seed, 6-1, 6-4 in 91 minutes.
It was the first time two South Koreans won their opening matches in Seoul since 2013.
For Jang, ranked No. 162 in the world, the win over Kenin was her first career victory over a Top 30 opponent.
Back, ranked No. 569, was able to force Ostapenko into long rallies, and the mistakes piled up for Ostapenko. She finished with 68 unforced errors compared to 43 winners.
Top-seeded Jessica Pegula avoided the upset bug, beating Viktoria Hruncakova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-4. No. 4 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic also advanced in the WTA 250 event.
Zhengzhou Open
Vera Zvonareva achieved her first Top 20 win since 2021 with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over ninth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova in China.
The 39-year-old Zvonareva, the one-time World No. 2, is still working her way back from a foot injury that kept her out of action from March 2022 until February.
In other first-round action, Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, fresh off her finals appearance in the China Open, continued her strong play with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Germany’s Tatjana Maria.
Also advancing at the WTA 500 tournament were No. 8 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia, Petra Martic of Croatia, Laura Siegemund of Germany and Zhuoxuan Bai of China.
Hong Kong Open
Canadian Leylah Fernandez advanced to the second round when top-seed Victoria Azarenka retired.
Their match was knotted at one set each when the Belarussian called it a day after appearing to hurt her left leg. Fernandez took a 2-6, 6-3 walkover win.
Also advancing at the WTA 250 event were No. 5 seed Anna Blinkova and fellow Russians Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Mirra Andreeva of Russia, as well as No. 6 seed Martina Trevisan of Italy.
Another Russian, Kamilla Rakhimova, beat eighth seed Varvara Gracheva of France 6-3, 6-2, and Czech Linda Fruhvirtova topped seventh-seeded Peyton Stearns in three sets.
–Field Level Media
