Haddad Maia books spot in Korea Open final
The Brazilian defeated Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday
Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, the No 3 seed, reached the final of the Korea Open by winning against Russian Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-4 at the Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul.
Playing the semi-final only a few hours after the quarter-final on Saturday, Haddad Maia produced a clinical performance against Kudermetova to seal the win in less than an hour, 50 minutes. She broke the Russian five times en route to the win.
Haddad Maia, ranked No 17, will face the winner of the match between top seed Daria Kasatkina and No 4 seed Diana Shnaider next.
The Brazilian beat Australian Ajla Tomljanovic (6-3, 6-4) and Russian lucky loser Polina Kudermetova (6-2, 6-1) in the previous rounds of the Seoul tournament.
Earlier in the tournament, Kudermetova, ranked No 44, won against Chinese Shuai Zhang (6-4, 6-3), second seed Liudmila Samsonova (6-4, 6-2) and Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova (7-5, 6-3).
Seoul WTA 500, other semi-final result (Olympic Park Tennis Center, hard, USD 922.573):
- Daria Kasatkina vs. Diana Shnaider