Six-Time Major Champion Ends Korea Open Debut Run on a Triumph
The WTA 500 Korea Open Championship finally drew to a well-contested close worthy of a final between the tournament’s number one and two seeds: Polish Iga Swiatek and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova. The athletes fought each other tooth and nail to the very end for two hours and 41 minutes. The overall match statistics have Alexandrova with a higher first service percentage of 59% to Swiatek’s 53%, and a better unforced error count of 25 to the number one seed’s 40. Yet, Swiatek emerged victorious; let it be dissected how.
Game Styles, Similarities, and Application
The two share a love of hardball-striking, and in this match, the theme was baseline domination. Both Swiatek and Alexandrova share the comfortably tall height of five nine, which helps them steadily batter groundstrokes on forehand and backhand wings. Additionally, the two’s service games were incredibly solid, not quite consistently close-out games at love, but they did set themselves up to be on the upper hand in points. This was necessary, as they are each very powerful baseline players, and as the tide of the match and score eventually showed, the players’ level of service was not always enough to save the other from breaks. Alexandrova faced seven break points and managed to save four, while Swiatek was threatened with breaks eight times and saved her service three times. Swiatek’s nine double faults can likely account for some of her many breaks, and two aces wouldn’t do much to help. Her opponent cancelled out her own six aces with six double faults, once more, leaving the game up to groundstrokes.
As for rallies and groundstrokes, the Polish World Number Two is more variable, however, and can be found setting up points to command and end at the net, unlike Alexandrova, who is very rooted to the baseline for almost everything. The most she did net-wise was run into the midcourt to capitalize on a short ball to blast it away for a punishing winner. During rallies, when she was brought in for short balls, she always elected to return to the baseline, rather than to push forward to the net to defend it. Between them, Swiatek’s footwork runs circles around her opponent’s. Alexandrova’s adjustment steps are reluctant; she plants and relies on her swinging might, but it leads her into error. On the baseline, both women played a relatively careful game to start, playing shots down the middle and near the middle, not yet aiming for the craziest of angles. Alexandrova did not mirror her opponent’s care to distance herself from the oncoming balls to give herself optimal swinging space and instead, collapsed on herself to her knees over and over again, still swinging, but a much less quality shot than what could have been had she taken the time to prioritize anticipation and footwork.
Though she had the upper hand in might and power, eventually pulling away from the unspoken truce of carefully placed shots for consistency down the middle, her lack of footwork would be her undoing. Alexandrova is stronger and began hitting winners that Swiatek couldn’t react to quickly in the first set, leading her to win in no time, 6-1, and in 31 minutes. The Polish World Number Two reset and re-evaluated in the second set, and put changes in place quickly. She weathered Alexandrova’s heavy shots, but capitalized on her preferred baseline positioning as much as she could. Swiatek played varied rallies deep, just into the baseline, and pulled some short and weak into the service box or just beyond, forcing the Russian World Number 11 to come into where she’s least comfortable.
How the Game Turned and Why
Swiatek’s implemented game changes were excellent, but did not immediately turn the tide of the match. Alexandrova is a hardy player and still had a lot of power and game sense on her side. Though her comfort shots of planting and punishing were largely taken away from her, she’s still a top player and knows how to adapt to unpleasantness, which she did. The Russian had a sharp uptick in unforced errors, but began going outright for blinding, angled winners when made to run or off balance, something that left Swiatek without answers every time the shots landed. Alexandrova nearly closed out the match in two sets despite Swiatek’s valiant efforts and pushback, but she couldn’t quite make it, and it made it to a tiebreak. There, Swiatek raised her game and pushed her intention, while her opponent, likely still reeling from letting the match opportunity slip, flustered more. Swiatek for the tiebreak, and the rest of the match, was truly a maestro, pushing and pulling with pace, even down to her serves, juggling with Alexandrova, who never adjusted, unsticking from the baseline, but grew more and more frustrated until the end of the match. Iga Swiatek won the Korea Open Championship 2025 with a grueling but well-deserved score of 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5. This victory marks her 25th Career WTA title, and her third title for the year. Before this, she’s won the Cincinnati Open and the Wimbledon Grand Slam Championship.
