A COUPLE of one-sided semi-finals at the 2025 Upper Austria Ladies Linz event saw just 29 games played from the women’s singles matches. Top seed and tournament favourite Karolina Muchova barely gave a yelp against Russian fourth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova who bagelled her in the first set and won 6-0 6-4.

In what was anticipated to be a tough slog for both players, Muchova produced arguably her worst performance of the year, not winning a game in the first set and only serving at a 45 per cent clip. By comparison, Alexandrova went at 67 per cent, claiming 77 per cent of her first serve points, and saving all four break points she faced.

While Muchova was much better in the second set, her first set was atrocious. She had a dominance rating of just 0.44 and serve rating in the double-digits (by comparison Alexandrova was 308). She served two double faults among eight unforced errors, with just two winners to her name, and only four points won on serve, none off her second serve.

As bad as the Czech was, Alexandrova was rock solid, racing through the first set in just 26 minutes. There was a sigh of relief when Muchova held in the first game of the second set, and almost went a break up after four, grabbing her first break point of the match.

However the Russian fourth seed held, and three games later secured the all-important break. Alexandrova held to love and in the blink of an eye, the lead was out to 5-3 in the second. Muchova held serve in the ninth game forcing Alexandrova to serve out the match, which the Russian duly did, winning the last game to love off her serve.

Alexandrova smashed 27 winners to Muchova’s eight for the match, and only committed 16 unforced errors to 18. While the Czech’s performance was her worst for the year, the opposite could be said for Alexandrova who completely dismantled a quality opponent. She won 59 per cent of her second serve points compared to Muchova’s 30 per cent to secure her place in the final.

Facing fifth seed Dayana Yastremska in the final, both players come into the match off red-hot performances. The Ukrainian also made light work of eighth seeded Dane, Clara Tauson. Yastremska won 6-1 6-4 in an hour and 46 minutes, hitting a whopping 43 winners – including six aces – to outserve and out-hit the powerful Tauson (15 winners including five aces) in the match.

While Yastremska’s serving efficiency could be better (51 per cent), she won 73 per cent of her first serve points, and importantly 54 per cnet of her second serve points. The Ukrainian also batted away nine break point opportunities for her opponent, while converting three of 10 as the Danish talent struggled off her second serve (24 per cent success rate).

2025 UPPER AUSTRIA LADIES LINZ WTA 500 – SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:

[4] Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) defeated [1] Karolina Muchova (CZE) 6-0 6-4
[5] Dayana Yastremska (UKR) defeated [8] Clara Tauson (DEN) 6-1 6-4

Meanwhile in Singapore, top seed Anna Kalinskaya‘s horror run with injury continued, having to retire after just one game in the second set. Having withdrawn from the Australian Open after an injury retirement in Adelaide, the Russian was building back into it at the Singapore Tennis Open. But unfortunately that luck came to an end, forced to retire when 7-6 1-0 down in the WTA 250 event semi-final.

That allowed unseeded American Ann Li to move through to the final to take on second seed Elise Mertens. The Belgian was too good for fourth seeded Chinese player Xinyu Wang, winning 6-3 6-4 in the space of 87 minutes. Mertens hit one more winner (24-23) but nine less unforced errors (15-24) as she capitalised on 74 per cent of her first serve points, and broke four times to two.

2025 SINGAPORE TENNIS OPEN WTA 250 – SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:

Ann Li (USA) defeated [1] Anna Kalinskaya (RUS) 7-6 1-0 RET
[2] Elise Mertens (BEL) defeated [4] Xinyu Wang (CHN) 6-3 6-4