World No 1 Elena Rybakina is one win away from defending her Ningbo Open title. The Kazakh beat Diana Shnaider 6-3 7-5 in Saturday's semi-finals and will face Canada's Leylah Fernandez, ranked 30th, who beat Marie Bouzkova 6-3 7-5, in Sunday's final.
Eleven set points
Rybakina dominated on serve, facing a single break point all match, but the scoreline hides a strange opening set. She led 5-3 and needed 11 set points to close it out, converting only the last of them, the WTA reported. In the second set she was broken to love when serving for the match at 5-4, then won nine of the next 12 points to finish in 1 hour 35 minutes.
"It's always difficult to play against lefties, we don't have so many on the Tour," Rybakina said of the left-handed Shnaider, according to Ubitennis. She now leads their head-to-head 3-0.
Fernandez's second final of the year
Fernandez needed 1 hour 58 minutes to beat Bouzkova and closed the match by winning the last three games. It is her second final of the season and the tenth of her career, according to the WTA, and she will be chasing a seventh career title. She arrived in the semi-finals after nearly eight hours on court in three matches, beating Elise Mertens 2-6 6-3 7-5, Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-5 6-7(3) 6-3 and Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6 6-2 6-1, Tennis Majors reported. The Canadian won the Singapore title a month ago and has won 13 of her last 16 matches; all six of her titles have come on hard courts.
The head-to-head
It will be the sixth meeting between the two and the first in a final. Rybakina leads 3-2 and has won the last two, most recently in Stuttgart earlier this year on her way to retaining the title there, the WTA noted.
What's at stake
For Rybakina, the final is a last tune-up before the WTA Finals at Indian Wells from 8 November, where she is the defending champion. She became world No 1 for the first time on 14 September after winning the US Open, and her three titles this season — the Australian Open, Stuttgart and the US Open — tie her with Aryna Sabalenka and Mirra Andreeva for the most in 2026, according to Tennis Majors. With 52 tour-level wins she already has more than any other player, and Sunday's final is the 28th of her career. Follow the final on our tennis results page and see the full WTA rankings.
Sources
This article was written by TiebreakNews from the reporting below, checked against official results and rankings.
- WTA — Rybakina survives Shnaider test, sets up Ningbo final with Fernandez
- Ubitennis — Elena Rybakina reaches first tour final as world No.1 in Ningbo
- Tennis Majors — Rybakina sets up Ningbo title defense against Fernandez