Seeded players fall to Korean onslaught in round of 32 at WTA Korea Open

Korea's Back Da-yeon celebrates after defeating Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko in a round-of-32 match in the singles tournament at the 2023 Hana Bank Korea Open in Seoul on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

Korean tennis players Back Da-yeon and Jang Su-jeong pulled off two huge upsets at the 2023 Hana Bank Korea Open singles tournament, knocking out the second- and fifth-seeds during the final round-of-32 matches on Tuesday.

Back, 21, defeated Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, 26, in a tiebreaker, making a huge comeback after losing the first set 6-3.

Back, currently ranked 569th, won the second set 6-1 and held on to tie the third set 6-6, forcing 13th-ranked Ostapenko into a first-to-seven-points tiebreaker, winning it 7-4 to secure her spot in the round of 16.

Ostapenko, who became visibly upset at several points during the match and at one point of the third set got into a verbal spat with the referee, will not get a chance to again see the final, which she lost at the Korea Open last year.

Back made her WTA debut at the 2022 Korea Open when she was knocked out by Korea’s Han Na-lae during the round of 32.

Earlier, Korea’s Jang defeated Sofia Kenin, of the United States, 2-0 during their round-of-32 match.

Jang, currently ranked 105th in women’s singles, defeated 30th-ranked Kenin 6-1 in the first set. The two stayed mostly neck-and-neck over the second set but Jang, up one with the scoreboard at 5-4, won the final game to end it 6-4.

Tuesday’s victory marks Jang’s first win against a top-30 player and it’s so far her best performance at the tournament since her first-ever Korea Open in 2013, when she defeated 33rd-ranked Klára Koukalová while still in high school.

Both Back and Jang will next play in the singles round of 16, where a win would secure each a ticket to the quarterfinals. Both will also play doubles matches Wednesday.

The Korean duo of Jang and Han — who was knocked out of this year’s singles tournament by seventh-seed Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus on Monday — will face Australia’s Kimberly Birrell and the United States’ Emina Bektas.

Back, alongside teammate Jeong Bo-young, is set to play in a round-of-16 doubles match against Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzková and the United States’ Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Also on Centre Court Tuesday, top-ranked Jess Pegula, of the United States — whose mother was born in Korea — defeated opponent Viktória Hrunčáková of Slovakia 2-0 to secure a spot in the next round.

Four Koreans qualified for the round of 32 knockout stage of the singles tournament at this year’s Korea Open but Han and Ku Yeon-woo were earlier eliminated from the tournament following losses on Monday.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]