The first round at the IKSAN VICTOR Korea Masters 2025 has now finished after two days. While most of the European hopes ended early, Ondřej Král/Tereza Švábíková gave a strong performance to advance to the next stage – the only Europeans to do so.

Švábíková also had her first-round match in women’s singles but faced a tough first challenge, seventh seed Huang Yu-Hsun. The Czech player improved throughout the match, especially in the second game where she started catching up after the break, but the player from Chinese Taipei managed to close it in straight games.

Keisha Fatimah Azzahra also had a tough fight. Just five world ranking spots separated her and her opponent Hung Yi-Ting, whom she’s faced once before – two years ago, where the Chinese Taipei player also won. This time, Azzahra took it to three games and delivered a strong performance, but it wasn’t enough to turn the result around.

The highlight for Europe came in mixed doubles. Král/Švábíková faced Korea’s Kwak Hee Chang/Boo Seo Yeon. The Czech duo, currently ranked 65 in the world, kept good control throughout most of the match. They took the opening game 21-15, closing it with a four-point streak. The second game was closer at the start, but Král/Švábíková took the lead again and secured the win, 21-13.

Tomorrow, they will face another Korean pair, Wang Chan/Kim Yu Jung, in the round of 16. A win would get the Czech pair into the quarterfinals, just one step away from a podium finish at this Super 300 tournament.

You can see all of today’s results here.