No. 5 seed Marta Kostyuk from Ukraine began her campaign at the Korea Open with a dominant 6-3, 6-1 victory over Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands in Seoul on Monday. Despite struggling with 10 double faults, Kostyuk managed to convert six out of 14 break points during the 78-minute match. She will face Britain’s Heather Watson in the second round, who advanced after defeating China’s Jia-Jing Lu 6-4, 6-4.
In other matches, seventh seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia defeated Varvara Lepchenko 7-5, 3-6, 6-0, while eighth seed Yue Yuan from China came back to win against Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse with a score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. Canadian Carol Zhao and Russian Veronika Kudermetova also progressed.
In the Thailand Open, No. 2 seed Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic triumphed over Australia’s Arina Rodionova with a score of 7-5, 6-1 in their first-round match in Hua Hin. Siniakova converted five out of six break points and came back from a 4-3 deficit in the first set, setting up a potential second-round match against either Nadia Podoroska from Argentina or Russia’s Ksenia Laskutova.
Fifth seed Xiyu Wang secured a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic, and sixth seed Katie Volynets edged out Denmark’s Clara Tauson in a closely contested match that ended 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3. Eighth seed Varvara Gracheva from France achieved a solid 6-1, 6-4 win against Australia’s Taylah Preston. Additionally, Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek, Germany’s Laura Siegemund, and Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee also moved on to the next round.