Ekaterina Alexandrova has maintained her brisk form in the Asian swing so far, despite losing to Barbora Krejcikova in the opening round of the China Open in Beijing. Elsewhere, she marched into the final of Seoul and the third round in Wuhan, with the resulting losses in either event coming to top-10 players: Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula.
The Russian has won multiple matches in 13 of her last 15 tournaments, and 15 of the last 20. Consequently, she has blasted into nine quarterfinals in the last nine and a half months across all sorts of conditions, and gone on to become the champion or runner-up in Linz, Monterrey and Seoul — all turning out to be WTA 500 tournaments.
It must come as no surprise that the consistent 30-year-old — ranked outside the top 30 at the start of the season — has now broken into the top-10 rankings for the first time. She will have nothing but high hopes while making her debut in Ningbo with a bye in its first round, carrying an 8-1 season record against players outside the top 100.
Yuan Yue, coming off second-round exits in Beijing and Wuhan, has assured herself of at least that result in Ningbo after beating compatriot Wang Xinyu, 6-3, 6-3. It was a rollercoaster match with a total of nine breaks of serve, but the 27-year-old was able to come away with her second career win at this event (having settled for the second round in 2024).
Despite a W100 title in Oeiras, a quarterfinal in Rosmalen and a third round in Cincinnati, this has not been a satisfying season for the Chinese player, who is still parked outside of the top 100. For instance, she could only win one match between Brisbane and Miami, and has not reached a hard-court WTA quarterfinal since last year’s Hong Kong.
Head-to-head: 1-1. Both of their previous clashes have been pitched affairs, with each involving a tiebreak. Yuan Yue came through in three sets at the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024. Ekaterina Alexandrova settled the score, 7-5, 7-6, in the quarterfinals of Monterrey on Mexican hard courts barely a few weeks later.
