Events / Editor / 10 September 2007 /

The Hansol Korea Open, held in Seoul, enters its third year in 2007 and betting on this Tier IV hard-court event is likely to be as intense as the action itself.

Greece's Eleni Daniilidou edged a dramatic see-saw encounter last year, when she survived cramping and three match points to upset the odds and win her fourth and most recent career title against a hotly-fancied opponent.

She outlasted Japanese third seed Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 to claim the £145,000 prize and land the bets in the process.

Backers of the Greek star would have also been rewarded in the betting when Daniilidou faced this year's beaten Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli in the semi-finals, as she triumphed in straight sets to defy the odds.

Those who followed former world number one Martina Hingis, a five-times Grand Slam winner and always a popular in the betting, would have been left red-faced in 2006. The Swiss miss suffered a disastrous second-round exit to Sanja Mirza, whose was 61 places below her in the rankings and would have been available at long odds.

Punters with bets on Russia's Maria Yuryevna Kirilenko, who had reached a career-high world ranking of 20, would have been expecting a good run for her money but she was sent packing by Vera Dushevina at the first-round stage.

World number two Jelena Jankovic reached her third final of the year in 2005 in Seoul and was expected to reward betting backers, but she was stunned into defeat by the-then 16-year old Nicole Vaidisova.

Poster girl Maria Sharapova would have rewarded favourite backers in the betting in the competition's inaugural year in 2004, when she swept aside Marta Domachowska 6-1 6-1.

Those fancying a bet on the Russian star are likely to see her odds snapped up when she looks to bounce back from her third-round US Open upset by 18-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska.

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