WTA: Australian Open Wildcard goes to Korean
Korean Han Na-Lae will make her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open after winning the Asia Pacific Wildcard Playoff Tournament.
by Robert M. Frank
last edit: Dec 09, 2019, 07:49 am
Han Na-Lae (WTA 182) has secured a wildcard for the Australian Open. The 27-year-old won the final of the Asia Pacific Wildcard Playoffs against Japanese Ayano Shimizu (WTA 288). The Korean won not only the trophy in the endowed with 100,000 US dollars qualifying hard court tournament in China, but also solved the ticket for the launching on January 20, 2020 in Melbourne Grand Slam tournament.
The four-time ITF tournament winner will be the first Korean woman to stand in the Australian Open at the Grand Slam for the past 12 years. Most recently, that was achieved in 2007 by her compatriot Cho Yoon-jeong, who was defeated in the first round of the US Open against Lourdes Domínguez Lino. The previous highlight of the former WTA World Ranking 149 was the victory over Kristyna Pliskova at the KEB Hana Bank-Incheon Airport Korea Open in Seoul 2017.