Libema Open: Veronika Kudermetova, Ekaterina Alexandrova set up finale!

Veronika Kudermetova and Ekaterina Alexandrova will play each other in the Libema Open final on Sunday. Theirs will be a repeat of the 2022 semi-final they’d contested at the same venue. Alexandrova had later won the title.

Kudermetova, the top seed, got past Viktoria Hruncakova 6-3, 6-2 in 82 minutes. The 10th-ranked Kudermetova won 73% of her first-serve points to her opponent’s 42% but trailed the latter when it came to winning second-serve points. The Slovakian won 63% of her second-serve points to the higher-ranked player’s 44%. Kudermetova faced six break points and saved all of them while converting four out of five break points that came her way on Hruncakova’s serve.

Post-match, Kudermetova said, “It was not easy, because Viktoria, she played really well, she played very aggressive. I think it was really important to stay focused and stay aggressive in the match.”

This defeat marked the second time that Hruncakova lost in the semi-final stage of the Dutch 250 tournament.

Libema Open: Ekaterina Alexandrova takes another step closer to title defence

Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, Alexandrova made her way back into the final for the second straight year. The fourth seed, ranked 26th in the world, beat seventh seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 7-6(1) in 78 minutes.

Alexandrova won 78% of her first-serve points to Sasnovich’s 56%. Both players struggled to do well on their second serve but Sasnovich was especially poor. This allowed Alexandrova to win 77% points on return on the latter’s second serve while winning 42% of her second-serve points. Alexandrova faced five break points across the match. She saved all three she faced in the first set. In the second set, both players exchanged breaks twice before the outcome of the match was decided in the tie-break.

The Libema Open final will be the fourth time Veronika Kudermetova and Ekaterina Alexandrova will play against each other. Kudermetova does have a slender 2-1 win-to-loss record but when they played each other the last time, here, it was Alexandrova who prevailed in straight sets.