Week #38 preview: Seoul, Tashkent

Seoul (KOR), International, $220,000
The 2nd tournament of the Asian mini-season takes place in Seoul. Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova leads an interesting line-up with Spanish Anabel Medina, Italian Francesca Schiavone, Austrian Sybille Bammer, Romanian Sorana Cirstea, Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova, German Anna Lena Groenefeld and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Alisa Kleybanova and Vera Dushevina as other candidates for the title.

Tashkent (UZB), International, $220,000
The weakest tournament of the WTA Tour takes place in Uzbekistan. With no Top-50 players and only 8 Top-100 players, the draw looks more like an ITF tournament. WTA #55 Yaroslava Shvedova is the 1st seed, although 2nd seed and last week champion in Ghuangzhou Shahar Peer is the big favourite for the title. Home crowd will cheer for local player Akgul Amanmuradova.