Ekaterina Alexandrova played her first tournament as a new top-10 player and nearly came away with a WTA 500 title. The Russian claimed the first three rounds in straight sets, including knocking out rising stars McCartney Kessler and Diana Shnaider, but eventually lost to Elena Rybakina in the finals in three sets.
It was her third runner-up finish since the start of August after the close misses against Diana Shnaider and Iga Swiatek in the championship rounds of Monterrey and Seoul, respectively. Overall, the 30-year-old has been to four WTA 500 finals throughout the season, but only converted the one in Linz into a title.
After winning multiple matches in 14 of her last 16 tournaments, the third seed is looking likely to match her 2023 performance in Tokyo when she settled with a quarterfinal finish. Should she prevail on Thursday, it would be her 11th last-eight appearance of the season and the ninth to come at WTA 500 level or higher.
Jaqueline Cristian looked in fine form as she kicked off her debut at the Toray Pan Pacific Open with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over qualifier Alina Charaeva under gloomy overcast conditions. The Romanian seems to be enjoying her time in Japan after scripting a semifinal in Osaka, albeit with the help of Naomi Osaka's withdrawal.
While she is nowhere close to being a reliable player on a week-in, week-out basis, the 27-year-old has cracked the code to the top-50 regardless. Further, she has risen as high as No. 41 in the rankings after reaching the finals at 125K Puerto Vallarta (title) and Rabat (runner-up), and the third rounds of six WTA 1000 and Slam events.
Head-to-head: 0-0. Jaqueline Cristian has lost 11 of 12 meetings with top-10 players to date, with the lone victory coming against Barbora Krejcikova at the China Open in Beijing last year. Ekaterina Alexandrova does not seem to be in a mood to let her guard down as she plays her fifth tournament of her very busy Asian swing.
