Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk Beats Briton Heather Watson at Korea Open

Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, the No. 5 seed, advanced to the quarter-finals of the Korea Open by overcoming qualifier Heather Watson 6-2, 6-2 at the Olympic Park Tennis Center in Seoul. This victory marked Kostyuk's second win against Watson in their head-to-head encounters. The 32-year-old Briton, currently ranked No. 183 in the world, initially responded to a lost serve in her opening game, yet Kostyuk managed to secure five of the following six games to claim the first set. This is prepared by SSP.

Kostyuk, ranked 18th, will face Russian Diana Shnaider, the No. 4 seed, who is vying for a spot in the semi-finals. We also saw Kostyuk's commanding performance throughout the week, including her win against Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus (6-3, 6-1). Watson, after failing to qualify for the US Open main draw last month, had a challenging run this season with only three main draw victories, including her previous win over China's Jia-Jing Lu (6-4, 6-4). Unfortunately, she couldn't launch a resurgence as Kostyuk sealed the second set with a double break to secure the win.

In other matches at the Korea Open (Seoul WTA 500, hard, USD 922,573), Polina Kudermetova defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 7-5, while Daria Kasatkina was set to play against Hailey Baptiste. British No. 2 Emma Raducanu also held a hard-fought victory over American Peyton Stearns and was scheduled to compete with China's Yue Yuan for a place in the last eight, along with Ajla Tomljanovic versus Beatriz Haddad Maia, Amanda Anisimova versus Viktoriya Tomova, and Veronika Kudermetova against Liudmila Samsonova.