The WTA 500 tournament looked set to provide a daunting test for Raducanu, as she prepares to play in her first WTA Tour event since her run to the quarter-finals of the Citi Open in Washington in early August.
Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula are among the big names that were initially entered into the draw on Seoul, but there have been a raft of withdrawals after a hectic few weeks for the game’s top players.
Playing the French Open on clay, transitioning to the grass and Wimbledon, moving back to clay to play the Olympic Games in Paris and then moving onto hard courts was a tough schedule, with Swiatek among those pleading with tennis chiefs to lighten the work load.
The upcoming WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan offer big prize money and ranking points to attract the game’s biggest names, but Swiatek and other members of the top ten are clearly keen to control their schedule in the final weeks of the regular season.
That has given lower ranked players such as Raducanu a chance to collect some valuable ranking points at the Korea Open, where she has been drawn to play against American Peyton Stearns.
Stearns is at No 49 in the WTA Rankings, with Raducanu currently at No 72.
Yet the Brit will take confidence from her only previous meeting against Stearns, as she beat her in Washington in her last regular tour event 7-6(6), 6-2.
If Raducanu gets back Stearns again, she could be in line for another meeting with America’s Sloane Stephens, who she has beaten in their previous two meetings.
World No 13 Daria Kasakina could be an opponent in the third round, with the withdrawal of higher ranked players opening the door for Raducanu to shine.
Raducanu has a glorious chance to climb into the top 50 of the WTA Rankings by the end of the year as she has no point to defend from 2023, as she missed the second half of last year due to injury.
A top 50 finish would represent good progress for Raducanu, despite criticism of her decision to only play one warm-up event before her first round defeat against Sofia Kenin in the first round of the US Open.
