Ekaterina Alexandrova beats Jelena Ostapenko to win Korea Open

Ekaterina Alexandrova reacts after beating top seed Jelena Ostapenko in the finals of the Hana Bank Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center in Songpa District, southern Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Ekaterina Alexandrova won the Hana Bank Korea Open on Sunday, beating top seed Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets 7-6, 6-0 at Olympic Park Tennis Center in Songpa District, southern Seoul.

The first and second sets played out very differently. The two players deuced six times in the first set that lasted over an hour, eventually pushing it to a tiebreaker that Alexandrova won 7-4.

But former French Open winner Ostapenko tanked in the second set, conceding her serve in the second game and quickly losing everything else to end the set with nothing on the scoreboard.

Conceding the first set after a grueling tiebreak and then losing her first serve of the second set after two deuces seemed to have thrown Ostapenko off her game.

En route to the finals, Alexandrova beat Tatiana Maria of Germany in two straight sets on Saturday while Ostapenko automatically advanced after former US Open winner Emma Raducanu dropped out of the semifinal in the third set of their match on Saturday with a thigh injury.

No. 19 Ostapenko was a tournament favorite coming into this year's Korea Open as the top seed and a former Grand Slam winner.

No. 24 Alexandrova entered the Hana Bank Korea Open as the second seed after winning the Libema Open in June. This is the Russian’s third career WTA Tour title after winning the 2019 Shenzen Open for her first title.

Alexandrova has a long history at the Korea Open. It was here that she reached a WTA quarterfinal for the first time in 2018, the same year she took her first victory against a top-10 player, Ostapenko. In 2019 she reached her second career semifinal in Seoul.

"I don’t know but every single time I play here in Seoul, the previous tournament was terrible for me because I was losing almost every time before coming here. But anytime I come here, I find my game back," said Alexandrova at the post-match interview on Sunday.

"That’s happened to few years ago when I couldn’t win too much in a row and did it for the first time here. Since then, for me it’s kind of a special tournament because playing here is always good. I feel the course of the balls, maybe the weather, just everything comes together and it just feels really nice on the court."

The Hana Bank Korea Open has now officially come to a close with more than 10,000 spectators attending the final at center court, the most that the Korea Open has ever seen.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]