After failing to win the trophy in Tokyo, Jessica Pegula gets a chance for a do-over as she takes on Yue Yuan in the 2023 Korea Open final.
Jessica Pegula has played some pretty solid tennis in Asia as she'll contest her second final in three weeks. She played superbly in Tokyo, making her way to the final, but was stunned by an inspired Veronika Kudermetova.
She hopes to avoid that in Seoul after producing another solid week of tennis. The opponent is a far less established one in Yue Yuan but a very tricky one.
The Chinese player loves to play attacking tennis, and she will certainly put Pegula under a lot of pressure, which isn't something that she likes to face. Both are capable hitters, and it's shaping up to be quite a hitting contest, so let's see what happens here.
Head-to-head:
These two players have some similarities, even though they have never played before on the WTA Tour. Both prefer to play on hard courts and have an attacking style, which works for them 99 % of the time.
Both are capable of producing shocking performances where simply nothing goes their way, and that's the danger. Pegula is the far better player as Yuan is not even ranked in the Top 100 with a pretty average year so far. She had a few good performances on native soil, but for the most part, she didn't really play all that great this year.
Prediction:
Pegula is the huge favourite to win the title. She's been really solid this week and, more generally, is the better player. Losing the Japan Open final was a surprise, but Kudermetova is a Top-10 caliber player, which isn't true for Yuan.
The Chinese will try to impose her will from the baseline but she's likely to fail unless Pegula has a very bad day.
Prediction: Jessica Pegula to win in two sets.
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