The phrase \u201cnumbers don\u2019t lie\u201d is a common misconception \u2013 especially in tennis.<\/p>\n
Take Sunday\u2019s Korea Open final for example, where Iga Swiatek was outperformed by Ekaterina Alexandrova in nearly every single statistical category, including total points won.<\/p>\n
Yet it was Swiatek who prevailed in Seoul, rallying to defeat Alexandrova 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 in 2 hours and 41 minutes. The victory marked her third title of the season and the 25th of her career.<\/p>\n
She is now 25-5 all-time in WTA finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I want to congratulate Ekaterina for an amazing week and an amazing final,\u201d Swiatek said during the trophy presentation. \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t know how I won it because you were playing great and I just tried to stay alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we\u2019re going to play more finals because it\u2019s always tough against you, but it\u2019s also entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n
That \u201ctried to stay alive\u201d mentality ultimately gave Swiatek the edge in a match defined by razor-thin margins \u2013 aside from the lopsided opening set.<\/p>\n
Alexandrova, the clear underdog, came out swinging and needed just 30 minutes to take the first set in convincing fashion, breaking Swiatek in the opening game and never looking back.<\/p>\n
Swiatek flipped the script to start the second set, breaking Alexandrova immediately. But the momentum shifted again as Alexandrova broke back in the next game. The two then traded holds until it came time for a tiebreak, where Swiatek finally looked to be the one in control for the first time in the match.<\/p>\n
She jumped out to a 3-0 lead, extended it to 5-2 and closed out the tiebreak 7-3 to force a decider.<\/p>\n
Early in the third, Swiatek handed Alexandrova a break with three double faults in one game, falling behind 2-1. But she recovered, leveling the set at 3-all and taking the lead for just the second time in the match in the next game.<\/p>\n
From there, scoreboard pressure worked in Swiatek\u2019s favor. As Alexandrova served to stay in the match, Swiatek turned up the heat \u2013 blasting a cross-court forehand winner on her second match point to put away her opponent and seal the comeback.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Alexandrova led nearly every key stat: she had more aces (6 to 2), fewer double faults (6 to 9), a higher first-serve percentage (595 to 535), a higher percentage of first serves won (66% to 58%), more winners (30 to 23), fewer unforced errors (25 to 40), more break points created (8 vs. 7) and a better conversion rate (63% to 43%), and most notably, more total points won (108 to 97).<\/p>\n
But Swiatek was simply more clutch.<\/p>\n
In the moments that mattered most \u2013 serving down 5-4 in the second set while Alexandrova was two points from victory, during the tiebreak, or when she trailed by a break in the third set \u2013 Swiatek showed exactly why she once held the world No. 1 ranking, and why she may reclaim it in the not-so-distant future.<\/p>\n
For now, Swiatek remains No. 2 in both the PIF WTA Rankings as well as No. 2 in the Race to the WTA Finals.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not what matters most to her at the moment. With this title, Swiatek finally delivered a lasting legacy in Seoul \u2013 something her father, Tomasz Swiatek, narrowly missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy that I could win here because of the family history,\u201d Swiatek said. \u201cMy dad couldn\u2019t win the Olympics [here] but at least I won this tournament. So hopefully he\u2019s going to come next year to enjoy everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Siniakova, Krejcikova reunite for doubles glory in Seoul<\/p>\n
Swiatek wasn\u2019t the only big winner in Seoul this week. One of the most successful doubles pairings in WTA history \u2013 Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova \u2013 reunited for a movie-like run to the final, where they defeated Maya Joint and Caty McNally 6-3, 7-6 (6) to claim the doubles title.<\/p>\n
The win was especially meaningful for Siniakova, who reclaimed the WTA doubles No. 1 ranking. She now sits at 161 career weeks atop the rankings \u2013 just two shy of Cara Black for third on the all-time list.<\/p>\n
All-time leaders: Weeks at WTA doubles No. 1 <\/p>\n
Martina Navratilova: 237
\nLiezel Huber: 199
\nCara Black: 163
\nKaterina Siniakova: 161<\/p>\n
For Siniakova, it\u2019s her 31st career WTA doubles title and third of the season, having previously won the Australian Open and the WTA 1000 event in Dubai with regular partner Taylor Townsend \u2013 who, coincidentally, is the player she displaced from the top spot in the rankings.<\/p>\n
For Krejcikova, the victory marks her milestone 20th career WTA doubles title and first of the 2025 season. Her last came in Prague in 2024, also alongside Siniakova.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The phrase \u201cnumbers don\u2019t lie\u201d is a common misconception \u2013 especially in tennis. Take Sunday\u2019s Korea Open final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":{"0":"post-171930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}