Jessica Pegula (No. 4-USA) has reached the singles final of the Hana Bank Korea Open ($259,303 prize fund) on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour .Pegula defeated Yanina Wickmayer (83rd-Belgium) 2-0 (6-4 6-3) in the singles semifinals on day six of the tournament on Thursday at the Olympic Park Tennis Courts in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Pegula will play Yuan Yue (No. 128-China) in the final on Friday. The tournament’s top seed, Pegula was knocked out in the first round of the main draw in her first appearance at the event in 2019, but has cruised to the final this time around. Pegula’s mother was born in Seoul and adopted by the United States.
“I’m half Korean,” she said at the 2019 Korea Open .Pegula’s parents, Terry and Kim Pegula, are American entrepreneurs with businesses in natural gas, real estate, and sports and entertainment, with a reported net worth of $5 billion (about $6.7 trillion).Pegula won her third career tour singles title in August when she dominated the Canadian Open .Earlier this month, she was runner-up at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan. Pegula’s final opponent, Yuan Yue, came from behind to defeat Emina Vektas (116th-ranked USA) 2-1 (6-7<3-7> 6-4 6-2) in an earlier quarterfinal match.
This is the first time Yuan Yue has reached a WTA Tour singles final .By reaching the final, Yuan Yue has booked herself a world ranking of around 106 for next week, and a win could see her climb as high as 89.The 15-day schedule begins with the doubles final at 12:30pm, followed by the singles final at 3pm. The doubles final will be played between Marie Bozkova (Czech Republic)-Bethany Maticsands (USA) and Laksika Kamkham-Pheangtharn Plipuets 안전놀이터 (Thailand).