Kiki Bertens edged Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-1 4-6 6-1 to set up a final against Elena Rybakina at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy. Bertens has reached her second consecutive final in St. Petersburg.
Bertens scored her third win against Russian rivals this week after beating Veronika Kudemertova and Anastasia Potapova.
Bertens broke three times to win the opening set 6-1. After a trade of breaks in the second and third games of the second set Alexandrova broke serve in the fifth game to win the second set 6-4. Bertens dropped just three points on serve and broke twice in a row to win the third set 6-1.
“I think I started the match well at 6-1 2-0. There were no complaints. I would say. I played a bad game on my serve, two not-so-good games, and I think she started believing. In the third set I was just trying to focus and stay in the match from the beginning. Her serve was not working so in the third set, so I was was a little bit lucky with that”, said Bertens.
Bertens will face 20-year-old Kazakh player Elena Rybakina, who came back from one set down to beat Maria Sakkari 3-6 7-5 6-1 after 1 hour and 54 minutes. Rybakina has reached the biggest final in her career.
Rybakina made her breakthrough in St. Petersburg two years ago, when she reached the quarter final as a qualifying wildcard and was ranked world number 450 after beating Caroline Garcia.
Rybakina came back from 3-6 4-5 down by winning nine of the ten games of the match. Rybakina broke serve at love to take a 6-5 lead before saving a break point.
Both players traded breaks at the start of the third set before Rybakina reeled off five consecutive games with three breaks.
Rybakina is projected to break into the top 20 for the first time in his career. The young Kazakh player has a 2020 record of 15 wins to 2 losses.
Bertens defeated Rybakina in their only previous head-to-head clash in the semifinal at the Libema Open in s’Hertogenbosch.
“I am really happy to start the season like this. I had a great preseason, so I feel good physically and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s match”, said Rybakina.
