Romanian top seed Irina-Camelia Begu moved into the last four of the Korean Open after defeating Johanna Larsson 6-4,7-5.
Begu was easing her way into the next round by leading 6-4, 5-1 before Larsson staged a late comeback. The Swedish world number 62 claimed four consecutive games to level the second set at 5-5. Despite the comeback, Begu managed to edge to the two sets win after a lengthy final game where she broke the Swede for the fifth time in the match to take the victory.
Begu is currently ranked 29th in the world, one spot away from her career high. Despite being ranked inside the top 30, the Romanian is yet to reach the final in a WTA tournament this year. Her best result in 2015 was the semi-finals of the Rio Open in February. The 25-year-old is bidding to win the second WTA title of her career in Seoul. Her first was at the 2012 Tashkent Open.
In the last four Begu will face 8th seed Alison Van Uytvanck. The Belgian continued her impressive run in Seoul by defeating 2014 Australian Open girls champion Elizaveta Kulichkova. Prior to this week, Uytvanck hasn’t won a singles match since s-Hertogenbosch in June. During her three sets match against the Russian, the world number 58 produced 8 aces and won 78% of her first service points to take it 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.
The semi-final meeting will be the second encounter between the two. The first was in the second round of qualification at the 2014 Florianopolis Open in Brazil. On that occasion the Belgian won in straight sets.
Third seed Sloane Stephens suffered a shock 6-3,6-2, loss to Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich. The American experienced difficulty from the start of the match as Sasnovich battled to open up a 4-0 lead in the first set. Stephens did break her opponent twice during the opening set but failed to capitalize on it as she dropped her serve in the following game. It was a familiar situation during the second set as the world No.136 grabbed the early break to open up a margin before pulling away. The 21-year-old took the match after 77 minutes due to an unforced error from Stephens.
Awaiting Sasnovich in the semi-finals will be Anna Schmiedlova. The second seed overcame a second set blip to defeat Germany’s Mona Barthel. The Slovakian endured a roller-coaster match, which lasted an hour and fifty-three minutes, before defeating Barthel 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. The 21-year-old is trying to reach her fourth WTA final this year in Seoul. Schmiedlova has already claimed two titles in Bucharest and Katowice. She was also runner-up to Sara Errani in the Rio Open.
Sasnovich defeated Schmiedlova in the first round of the 2014 US Open to claim the first Grand Slam main draw win of her career.
