
Welcome to another edition of Winner's Circle, a segment where we review each winner of every ATP and WTA tournament during the truncated 2020 season.
This week, we shall relive Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova battle as she fought her way to become the first champion on the WTA Tour of 2020.
Shenzhen Open
Winner: Ekaterina Alexandrova
Having captured the WTA 125K Series event in Limoges a few weeks prior, Alexandrova was entering Shenzhen with a lot of momentum.
The 5th seed extended her winning streak by dispatching of Katerina Siniakova 6-4 6-4 in an hour and a half.
She followed this with a 7-6(7) 6-1 victory over China's Shuai Peng. With top seed Belinda Bencic falling in her opening match against Anna Blinkova, the window of opportunity was wide open.
Nonetheless, a few strong players still remained in the field, namely Aryna Sabalenka (2), Elise Mertens (3) and Garbine Muguruza (6). Sabalenka and Mertens were upset in the second round and quarterfinal respectively, with Alexandrova defeating fourth seed Qiang Wang 3-6 6-4 6-3 to advance to the semifinals.
Alexandrova faced two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza in the semifinals. Having lost their sole previous encounter (Wimbledon 2017), the Russian made quick work of her Spanish opponent. She brushed past Muguruza 6-4 6-3 to face seventh-seeded Kazakh Elena Rybakina, who defeated Kristyna Pliskova 6-2 7-5 in the other semifinal match.
The pair had never previously met on the WTA, although Rybakina was competing in her third final in six months. Alexandrova was able to neutralize Rybakina's previously impeccable first serves, and quickly raced to a 4-0 lead.
The first set was over in half an hour, and Alexandrova stifled a brief Rybakina comeback in the second to claim her maiden WTA title, prevailing 6-2 6-4 in 73 minutes.
Having claimed the first WTA title of the decade, Alexandrova also reached a career-high in rankings. The Russian moved up eight spots from World No.34 to No.26 and extended her winning streak to 10 straight matches.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13wb-kSIis[/embed]
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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