Elena Rybakina defeated Jasmine Paolini in straight sets in the semi-finals of the 2025 Ningbo Open, and the result could be significant in the Race to the WTA Finals.<\/p>\n
The world No 9 earned a convincing 6-3, 6-2 victory against eighth-ranked Paolini<\/a> to progress to the final at the WTA<\/a> 500 tournament in China.<\/p>\n Rybakina<\/a> did not lose serve in the match, saving seven break points, while she broke her 29-year-old Italian opponent three times. The Russian-born Kazakh had lost her last two matches against Paolini and trailed the pair\u2019s head-to-head 2-3 prior to this match.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew the match would be very tough. Jasmine played really well this season. She\u2019s a really tough opponent,\u201d said the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I\u2019d need to bring my best. I\u2019m happy I stayed focused \u2019til the end and I won it in straight sets.\u201d<\/p>\n Six players have already qualified for the WTA Finals: Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys.<\/p>\n This leaves the final two spots in the Race to Riyadh \u2014 the yearly rankings which determine the eight qualifiers for the WTA Finals \u2014 up for grabs.<\/p>\n Rybakina started the week ninth in the Race<\/a>, 218 points behind eighth-placed Paolini and 406 points behind seventh-place Mirra Andreeva<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 2022 Wimbledon champion knew, therefore, that she needed to make a deep run in Ningbo to keep her hopes of qualifying for the season-ending championships alive.<\/p>\n Andreeva\u2019s shock defeat to Zhu Lin in her opening match in Ningbo means she increased her tally by just a single point to 4,320.<\/p>\n By reaching the last four, Paolini increased her points total to 4,325, which has narrowly lifted her above Andreeva into the No 7 position in the Race.<\/p>\n Jasmine Paolini interview \u2013 Jannik Sinner\u2019s advice, defeating the giants and her best moment<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Emma Raducanu: former world No 8 sparks backlash with \u2018ridiculous\u2019 take on Brit\u2019s US Open win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n There was, therefore, a lot on the line in the semi-final between Rybakina and Paolini, and the former\u2019s victory has moved her onto 4,130 points.<\/p>\n Rybakina will face either Diana Shnaider or Ekaterina Alexandrova in the final, and if she wins, she will jump to 4,305 points.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very excited. I\u2019ll try to bring my best. Let\u2019s see what\u2019s gonna happen,\u201d Rybakina said of the final.<\/p>\n Winning the Ningbo Open would still leave Rybakina in ninth place, but she would be just 15 points behind Andreeva and 20 points below Paolini.<\/p>\n The Race is, then, set for a fascinating conclusion, with both Rybakina and Paolini having entered the WTA 500 tournament in Tokyo next week.<\/p>\n Andreeva\u2019s hopes of qualifying for Riyadh now look in doubt as she has not entered a tournament next week.<\/p>\n Ahead of her semi-final win, Rybakina spoke about her chances of qualifying for the WTA Finals.<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t say it\u2019s pressure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course it would be nice to qualify. But I know for this I still need to win a lot of matches. Not only here, but also next week (in Tokyo).<\/p>\n \u201cI just try to finish the season as best as possible. Most important is to stay healthy. The season has been very long. Not that successful for me. But I still think it\u2019s been pretty decent. Just important to stay healthy and be ready for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Coco Gauff\u2019s \u2018selective memory\u2019 lauded as leading tennis voice reveals why she is an \u2018enigma\u2019<\/a> The post Why Elena Rybakina beating Jasmine Paolini in Ningbo could be crucial in WTA Finals Race<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elena Rybakina defeated Jasmine Paolini in straight sets in the semi-finals of the 2025 Ningbo Open, and the result could be significant in the Race to the WTA Finals. The world No 9 earned a convincing 6-3, 6-2 victory against eighth-ranked Paolini to progress to the final at the WTA 500 tournament in China. Rybakina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h2>\n
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