Seoul: All four matches in the quarterfinals of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tournament in Seoul were postponed due to rain Friday. Organizers of the Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center said the four matches will be played Saturday afternoon, with the two semifinal matches scheduled for the Saturday night session. The final is scheduled for Sunday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the four quarterfinal matches will be divided between two courts on Saturday. At center court, top seed Iga Swiatek, the reigning Wimbledon champion, will compete against Barbora Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam singles winner from the Czech Republic, starting at noon. This match will be followed by the contest between Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No. 2 seed from Russia, and Ella Seidel of Germany.
At the adjacent grandstand court, No. 3 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark will play against Maya Joint of Australia at noon. Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic will face off in the subsequent match.
Both semifinal matches are scheduled to take place at center court, with the first match set to begin at 5 p.m. The Korea Open, the sole WTA tournament hosted in Seoul each fall, experienced some weather-related disruptions earlier in the week, which resulted in some round of 16 matches being rescheduled to Wednesday.
Of the eight seeded players, five were eliminated in the round of 16, including defending champion Beatriz Haddad Maia from Brazil and Emma Raducanu of Britain, the 2021 U.S. Open champion and a popular figure in Seoul. Since its inception in 2004, the Korea Open has never had consecutive champions. Alexandrova, the 2022 winner, aims to become the first player to secure multiple Korea Open titles.