Alexandrova: played her first tournament as a Top Ten and reached the final

Elena Rybakina raised her hopes of reaching the WTA Finals in time because she got into the final of the Ningbo tournament that she will play against Ekaterina Alexandrova.

The Kazakh is still making calculations to compete in the tournament that brings together the eight best in the world at the end of the year. She is ninth and is precisely stalking Jasmine Paolini who could have secured her place in Riyadh if she had made the semi-final. But Rybakina won 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and a half and moved into the twenty-first final of his career, the second of the year after the one in Strasbourg that he won.

If she wins the title she will be only 20 points behind the Italian in the race already 15 from Mirra Andreeva in the “battle” for the last place.

The other finalist reaches the definition in the first tournament played as Top Ten. He also reached his fourth final of 2025 at win 6-3 and 6-4 over Diana Shnaider.

It took him ninety minutes to surpass his compatriot and aspire to win his second trophy so far this year after Linz. He lost the finals in Seoul and Monterrey also in 2025.