BELARUSIAN, Aliaksandra Sasnovich is the only player standing in between Ekaterina Alexandrova and the top seeded Russian’s third Open BLS De Limoges in four years, after the pair won through to the final. Both players had to battle hard during different points of their semi-finals, with Sasnovich coming from a set down to defeat Belgium’s Greet Minnen, 2-6 6-2 6-2, while Alexandrova survived a tiebreaker to outlast American qualifier, Nicole Gibbs, 7-6 6-2.

Alexandrova was the only surviving seed from the quarter finals onwards, and produced a consistent serving effort against Gibbs, winning 63.5 per cent of her first service points, while saving four of a possible six break point opportunities for her opponents. Gibbs had to work a lot harder to delay the inevitable, as her first serve was attacked at time, winning less than half of the points and forced to save 11 break point opportunities, but eventually succumbed on four occasions. The match took an hour an 24 minutes with Alexandrova just winning the first set tiebreaker, 8-6, before running away with it in the second set to secure another spot in the last match of the tournament.

The other semi-final took just over two hours as Sasnovich and Minnen, as the Belarusian powered home five aces in the first set, but it did little to help her as she was broken twice by her opponent. Minnen’s reliability on her serve was clear as she won 13 of a possible 15 points on her first serve, and still managed a 50 per cent winning record on her second serve. It helped Minnen claim the first set 6-2, before Sasnovich went back to basics, serving just one ace for the remainder of the match, but not allowing easy points off her service as both players struggled with their first serves. She broke Minnen twice in each set, and looked completely dominant in the third set, winning 21 of a possible 30 service points, while targeting the Belgium’s second serve with a massive 90 per cent of her second serve points going the way of the Belarusian. Now Sasnovich has a chance of causing an upset against Alexandrova who is strong favourite to take out yet another Limoges title.

The final is set to be a beauty, with Alexandrova holding a 1-0 head-to-head record over Sasnovich, but the Belarusian is still ranked 67th, not too far behind the 42nd Russian. Both players are 25 years-old and Sasnovich has reached the top 30 in September, 2018, while Alexandrova’s highest career ranking is 35th from October.

Meanwhile in the doubles, third seed Spainish pair, Georgia Garcia Perez and Sara Sorribes Tormo upset number one seeds, Russian Anna Blinkova and Romanian Monica Niculescu. Coming from a set down, Garcia Perez and Sorribes Tormo toppled the top seeded team to advance through to the final, 3-6 6-2 7-10. Now they take on number four seeds, Alexandrova and Oksana Kalashnikova with the Russian having a busy day, featuring in back-to-back finals.