South Korea and Hong Kong will be the next stamps on Tracey Hallam's globe-trotting passport.

And the England No 1 hopes her trip to the Far East over the next fortnight will be the ideal ticket to boost her World Championships challenge next month.

Hallam tackles the Yonex Korea Open this week and then the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open the following week, with the knowledge that two convincing tournaments will enhance her claims when the world's best battle in Madrid from September 16.

A seeding in the Spanish capital will be major plus but she needs two good runs in the next fortnight to secure a seeding berth.

"At the moment I'm just out of the seeded places," said Hallam. "But the next player above me, Japan's Kaori Mori, is 200 points ahead. That's less than one round.

"I'll be keeping an eye on what Kaori Mori is doing but all I can do is concentrate on how I'm playing."

The Burton-on-Trent player is currently 11th in the world rankings, but the World Championships only permit two players from each nation so the phalanx of Chinese players who dominate the standings will be limited. That pushes Hallam into ninth spot, just behind Mori, who also competes in the next two tournaments.

Hallam won a Commonwealth Gold in Melbourne in March and then produced arguably her best-ever series of wins to beat three Chinese-born players to reach the Proton Malaysia Open final.

The 31-year-old will be the only English women in the singles competition in Seoul and Hong Kong but she is in positive mood.

"There is probably a bit of pressure but I'm thriving on it at the moment," she said.