Third-seeded Haddad Maia wins Korea Open tennis title

Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil pulled off a strong comeback for her first WTA title of the season in Seoul on Sunday.

The third-seeded Haddad Maia defeated Daria Kasatkina, the top seed from Russia, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, to win the Korea Open at Olympic Park Tennis Center.

Haddad Maia, world No. 17, now has four career WTA singles titles, thanks to an impressive rally on the heels of a lethargic first set.

Kasatkina, world No. 13, won the opening frame in just 26 minutes, and won especially easy points when serving. Up 2-1, Kasatkina broke Haddad Maia and then held her serve to go up 4-1.

The sixth game went to deuce, and Kasatkina won two quick points to take a commanding 5-1 lead. She then won the next game handily to close out the opening set.

Kasatkina broke her opponent to begin the second set, as she kept finding corners all over the court with sharp groundstrokes.

Kasatkina then held serve after surviving a deuce battle. Haddad Maia won the next game to stay close, but Kasatkina came right back to take the next game to build a 3-1 lead.

The pendulum began swinging the other way at that point. After holding serve, Haddad Maia broke Kasatkina for the first time to pull even at 3-3.

Riding that momentum, the Brazilian held serve to claim her third consecutive game for a 4-3 lead.

Kasatkina answered the bell to draw level at 4-4. But Haddad Maia battled back from 40-30 down to win the next game and go up 5-4. Haddad Maia then broke Kasatkina to take the second set at 6-4, putting her exclamation point with a forehand winner that just grazed the baseline.

Haddad Maia held serve to start the third set before Kasatkina returned the favor.

Up 2-1, Haddad Maia broke Kasatkina without dropping a point and went up by two games.

Kasatkina held a triple break point in the next game at 40-0, but couldn't finish her business, as Haddad Maia capped a string of five straight points with an emphatic forehand winner.

Kasatkina showed a bit more life in the next game, but Haddad Maia answered every challenge, breaking her opponent again to go up 5-1.

Serving for the match, Haddad Maia clinched the title when Kasatkina's return went long at 40-0.

The Korea Open was elevated from the WTA 250, the lowest rung on the women's circuit, to the WTA 500 for this year. Haddad Maia earned 500 ranking points and pocketed $142,000 with this victory.

Earlier Sunday, Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Liudmila Samsonova of Russia teamed up for the doubles title.

In the final, they made quick work of Miyu Kato of Japan and Zhang Shuai of China 6-1, 6-0, needing only 50 minutes for the breezy win.

This was the third doubles title of 2024 for Melichar-Martinez and first for Samsonova.