Two months ago, Ekaterina Alexandrova suffered a heartbreaking three-set loss to Diana Shnaider on a rain-soaked night in the Monterrey final.<\/p>\n
Ningbo: Scores<\/a> | Draws<\/a> | Order of play<\/a><\/p>\n But that was a different Alexandrova — the one who had come so close but hadn\u2019t yet cracked the top 10. The new version, fresh off her top 10 debut earlier this week, wasn\u2019t about to let this match slip away.<\/p>\n On another rainy Saturday night, this time in Ningbo with the benefit of indoor play, Alexandrova earned her revenge in straight sets. She defeated Shnaider 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour and 32 minutes to reach to the final of the 2025 AUX \u00b7 Ningbo Open, where she will face Elena Rybakina.<\/p>\n It marks Alexandrova\u2019s fourth final of the season, all at the WTA 500 level.<\/p>\n She enters with a clear mindset.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I have no expectations,\u201d Alexandrova said after the match. \u201cI\u2019ll go on court tomorrow and enjoy the atmosphere and the match. I\u2019ll try to do my best because she\u2019s a great player and she has a really tough serve, so it\u2019ll be super difficult. But I\u2019ll enjoy my time here and do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how she flipped the script on Shnaider and what lies ahead for the 30-year-old:<\/p>\n Withstanding pressure: Shnaider had her chances. She earned 10 break points in the two-set match, including eight in the first set alone.<\/p>\n But Alexandrova held firm, especially in key moments. After Shnaider broke her trailing 5-1 in the first set, she nearly did so again down 5-3 before Alexandrova put an abrupt stop to the rally.<\/p>\n In the second set, Shnaider again tried to mount a charge. She saved two match points on her serve and three more as Alexandrova tried to close out the match. Finally, on her sixth match point, Alexandrova was able to send her compatriot packing with one last forehand winner.<\/p>\n Shnaider converted just two of 10 break points on the night, while Alexandrova went 4-for-7.<\/p>\n Advantage, Alexandrova: The world No. 10 dominated on serve, outperforming Shnaider across the board:<\/p>\n Category Aces First serve percentage First serve points won Second serve points won It\u2019s the kind of performance that makes Alexandrova tough to beat — one she\u2019ll need to replicate in Sunday\u2019s final against Rybakina, one of the few players on tour with a serve as strong, if not stronger, than her own.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next: When she takes the court against Rybakina, Alexandrova will do so with a head-to-head advantage, having won three of their four career meetings.<\/p>\n Their last matchup came in Adelaide to open the 2024 season, where Alexandrova won in straight sets.<\/p>\n If she can beat Rybakina again and capture the trophy in Ningbo, it would give Alexandrova her second title of 2025 and the sixth of her career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two months ago, Ekaterina Alexandrova suffered a heartbreaking three-set loss to Diana Shnaider on a rain-soaked night in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-223203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAlexandrova
\nShnaider<\/p>\n
\n4
\n3<\/p>\n
\n67%
\n64%<\/p>\n
\n64%
\n53%<\/p>\n
\n56%
\n53%<\/p>\n