Alexandrova, Sorribes Tormo to square off in Cleveland final
No.4 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova
Alexandrova clinched a spot in her second final of the year by defeating Zhu Lin 7-5, 6-2 in Friday's first semifinal.
It took World No.22 Alexandrova 1 hour and 21 minutes to oust 48th-ranked Zhu in their first career meeting. Alexandrova had seven aces and won 78 percent of her first-service points in the clash.
"It was quite a difficult match because I think semifinal matches, they're never easy," Alexandrova said afterwards. "I had a break early in the first set, but I couldn't keep it unfortunately, so it was 5-5 and a really shaky situation. I was able to manage to find a way back."
Alexandrova is now a win away from her fifth career WTA singles title and her second title of the year. The 28-year-old successfully defended her grass-court title in 's-Hertogenbosch earlier this summer.
"I think maybe the start of the year wasn't as great as expected, but I was able to manage to find [my] game in the middle of this year, and I want to keep it the same way, keep it as long as possible," Alexandrova said.
In the evening semifinal, Sorribes Tormo grabbed a 6-4, 6-3 win to end the seven-match winning streak of Tatjana Maria
World No.49 Maria came into the event having just won last week's WTA 125 Barranquilla title, but Sorribes Tormo snapped the German's run with a 1-hour and 53-minute victory.
Sorribes Tormo, who has been ranked as high as No.32 but is currently ranked No.95, lost in the final round of qualifying to Clara Burel
Only five lucky losers in history have won WTA singles titles -- but Sorribes Tormo is aiming to be the third in just the last two months. Maria Timofeeva
Sorribes Tormo won her only previous meeting with Alexandrova, but it was nearly seven years ago, in Linz qualifying in 2016.
