{"id":925757,"date":"2026-10-08T21:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T21:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925757\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T21:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T21:34:09","slug":"third-times-the-charm-andreeva-tops-alexandrova-to-reach-beijing-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925757\/","title":{"rendered":"Third time’s the charm: Andreeva tops Alexandrova to reach Beijing semis"},"content":{"rendered":"

They say the third time is the charm, and that proved true for Mirra Andreeva on Thursday night as she earned her first win over No. 19 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) in 1 hour and 53 minutes to reach the Beijing semifinals for the first time.<\/p>\n

Beijing: Scores<\/a> | Order of play<\/a> | Draws<\/a><\/p>\n

Andreeva led 4-1 and served for the match at 5-3 in the second set, but Alexandrova mounted a late comeback to force a tiebreak. There, Andreeva fired a forehand winner to take a 3-2 lead, let out a roar and won five of the final six points to seal the victory.<\/p>\n

“Even when I had an advantage in the second set leading 5-2, I felt like she was still pressuring me,” Andreeva said in her post-match interview. “I felt like she was playing better and I didn’t take my chances. I could have played more aggressive, but what a match this was. I’m super happy with how it went.<\/p>\n

“She played unbelievable today, and I’m very happy to get my very first win against her.”<\/p>\n

Big win in Beijing \ud83d\udd25 Mirra Andreeva defeats Alexandrova to secure her semifinal place in Beijing and move a step closer in the race to WTA Finals Indian Wells! #ChinaOpen https:\/\/t.co\/4Ek6z3Duj3<\/p>\n

\u2014 wta (@WTA) October 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

With the win, Andreeva improved to 1-2 against Alexandrova at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level after failing to win a set in their previous two meetings. She also became the youngest player to reach the China Open semifinals since Agnes Szavay in 2007.<\/p>\n

The result sends Andreeva into her fourth career WTA 1000 semifinal. Since the format’s introduction in 2009, only Coco Gauff (five) has reached more WTA 1000 semifinals as a teenager.<\/p>\n

Stat watch<\/p>\n

The numbers heavily favored Andreeva despite the narrow margin on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Into her first Beijing semifinal \ud83e\udd29 Mirra Andreeva secures the win against Alexandrova! #ChinaOpen https:\/\/t.co\/04TwsADZZN<\/p>\n

\u2014 wta (@WTA) October 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

She landed 62% of her first serves and won 71% of those points while finishing with a positive winners-to-unforced-errors differential of 23-16, including a 15-5 mark in the second set. Both players broke serve four times, with Andreeva converting four of seven break-point opportunities and Alexandrova 4 of 10.<\/p>\n

Andreeva’s 296 break points converted are the most by any player in WTA main-draw matches in 2026. Only four players have hit more winners than Andreeva’s 1,350 this season: Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Linda Noskova and Jessica Pegula.<\/p>\n

Young stars set for battle<\/p>\n

Andreeva will face Nikola Bartukova in the semis after the 20-year-old stunned compatriot Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-0 in 67 minutes on Thursday to reach her first WTA 1000 semifinal.<\/p>\n

It will be the second meeting between the rising stars. Their first came at the US Open last month, where Andreeva prevailed 6-2, 7-6 (5).<\/p>\n

“She beat a lot of great players on her way to the semifinals,” Andreeva told reporters. “For sure, this match will be tough. Even though I won at the US Open, I still felt like the match was tough. Lots of ups and downs. I think this match is going to be very entertaining for people to watch. She’s an amazing player, so I’m super excited to play her again.<\/p>\n

“She’s also very young, so it’s kind of a battle of — I don’t want to say new generation — but young players.”<\/p>\n

At a combined age of 40 years, six days, Andreeva and Bartunkova will form the fourth-youngest WTA 1000 semifinal matchup since 2009. The only younger pairings were Iga Swiatek-Coco Gauff (Rome 2021), Ana Ivanovic-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Indian Wells 2009) and Bianca Andreescu-Sofia Kenin (Toronto 2019).<\/p>\n

The winner will face either No. 6 seed Elina Svitolina, No. 8 seed Iga Swiatek, No. 13 seed Elise Mertens or local favorite Zheng Qinwen in the final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They say the third time is the charm, and that proved true for Mirra Andreeva on Thursday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":["post-925757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}