Swiatek shrugs off double duty to reach Korea Open final
SEOUL: Iga Swiatek blazed into the Korea Open final after bad weather forced her to play two matches on Saturday, winning both in a combined time of two and a half hours. The Polish six-time Grand Slam champion thrashed the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova 6-0, 6-3 in a quarter-final moved from Friday because of heavy rain, then returned to the court hours later to face Australia’s Maya Joint. World number two Swiatek was just as clinical against her semifinal opponent, winning 6-0, 6-2 to move into her fifth final of the year. In Sunday’s final, she will face Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova 6-4, 6-2 in the other semifinal. “I just focused on myself and on the goals that I had before and continued doing what I was doing throughout the whole tournament, because it’s been working,” said Swiatek. Swiatek came into the Seoul tournament on the back of a stunning quarter-final defeat to eventual finalist Amanda Anisimova at the US Open. Swiatek, whose father Tomasz competed in rowing at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, dispatched Krejcikova in 1 hour, 25 minutes. She had an even shorter evening’s work against Joint, winning in 1 hour, 6 minutes. Swiatek was all business from start to finish against Joint, clinching the match with an easy winner at the net. All four quarter-finals were pushed back a day from Friday as bad weather continued to affect the tournament, which has been hit with delays all week.