Finals set in Austria and Singapore

No. 4 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova secured her spot in the final at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz in Linz, Austria, on Saturday. She achieved this by delivering a commanding performance, defeating top seed Karolina Muchova with a score of 6-0, 6-4. It took Alexandrova just 73 minutes to defeat her Czech opponent and improve her head-to-head record to 4-1. In the previous year’s final, the Russian player suffered a loss against top seed Jelena Ostapenko from Lativa.

Austria

Alexandrova, who is aiming for her fifth career title, will face off against No. 5 seed Dayana Yastremska from Ukraine in the final on Sunday. In the other semifinal, she triumphed over No. 8 seed Clara Tauson from Denmark with a score of 6-1, 6-4. This victory secured Alexandrova’s first WTA singles final appearance in almost three years.

Yastremska holds a 3-2 advantage in their head-to-head record against Alexandrova. Their most recent encounter took place in 2022, resulting in a victory for Alexandrova. Since her triumph over Caroline Garcia in Strasbourg, France in 2019, Yastremska has not managed to secure a tournament win.

Austria

Singapore Tennis Open Belgium’s second seed, Elise Mertens, comfortably advanced to the final in Singapore, utilizing nine aces and four break points to defeat China’s fourth-seeded player, Xinyu Wang, with a score of 6-3, 6-4. During the match, which lasted just under 90 minutes, Mertens achieved a 74 percent success rate on her first serve.

In the upcoming final on Sunday, she will be competing against Ann Li. Ann Li, the American player, was in the lead with a score of 7-6 (2), 1-0 against the top-seeded Anna Kalinskaya when the Russian player retired from the match.

Austria
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After the intense first set that lasted for 57 minutes, Kalinskaya took a medical break to receive treatment on her right thigh. Unfortunately, she was unable to continue and decided to retire from the match.

Ann Li, currently ranked No. 85 in the world, will be aiming for her second singles title after her victory in Tenerife, Spain in 2021. On the other hand, Mertens has a total of eight career singles titles.

Interestingly enough, these two players have never faced each other in a singles match before.

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