WTA roundup: Finals set in Austria, Singapore

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No. 4 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova reached her second consecutive final in Linz, Austria, on Saturday with a dominating 6-0, 6-4 win over top seed Karolina Muchova at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz.

Alexandrova, of Russia, needed just 73 minutes to beat the Czech and move to 4-1 in their head-to-head series. In the final last year, Alexandrova lost to top seed Jelena Ostapenko of Lativa.

Alexandrova, who is looking for her fifth career title, will meet No. 5 seed Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine in the final on Sunday. She defeated No. 8 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark 6-1, 6-4 in the other semifinal to qualify for her first WTA singles final in nearly three years.

Yastremska has a 3-2 head-to-head lead over Alexandrova. They last met 2022, with Alexandrova victorious.

The Ukrainian has not won a tournament since defeating Caroline Garcia in Strasbourg, France, in 2019.

Singapore Tennis Open

Second seed Elise Mertens of Belgium cruised into the final in Singapore, using nine aces and four break points to top fourth-seeded Xinyu Wang of China 6-3, 6-4.

Mertens won 74 percent of her points on the first serve in the match, which lasted just less than 90 minutes.

In the final on Sunday, she will face Ann Li. The American, Li, was leading 7-6 (2), 1-0 over top-seeded Anna Kalinskaya when the Russian retired.

Kalinskaya took a medical timeout after the 57-minute first set to get treatment on her right thigh before retiring.

Li, ranked No. 85 in the world, will be seeking her second career singles title after winning in Tenerife, Spain, in 2021. Mertens has eight career singles title.

The two have never met in a singles match.

–Field Level Media