Ekaterina Alexandrova

She received direct entry into the Australian Open main draw for the first time in her career, but lost to compatriot and 30th seed Ekaterina Makarova in the first round.

She made her top-100 debut with consecutive title runs a $60k events Pingshan Open and Open de Seine-et-Marne.

Making her first French Open main-draw appearance, she beat Kateřina Siniaková before falling short of eventual semifinalist and world No. 2, Karolína Plíšková, in three sets.

At the Wimbledon Championships, Alexandrova lost to eventual champion Garbiñe Muguruza in the first round.

Alexandrova qualified for a Premier 5 tournament for the first time at the Rogers Cup, but lost to world No. 6 and eventual finalist, Caroline Wozniacki, in the second round.

At the Open de Limoges, she lost in the quarterfinals to Antonia Lottner as the defending champion.

Alexandrova enjoyed a breakthrough season on the WTA Tour in the year.

At the Australian Open, she was beaten by fellow hard-hitting Madison Keys in the second round, winning just one game in the process.

After some mediocre results, Alexandrova fell out of the top 100.

However, she managed to make the semifinals of $100k events, the Empire Slovak Open and Ilkley Trophy.

Alongside a run to the final of the $100k event, the Hungarian Ladies Open, she returned to the top 100.

She made her first WTA quarterfinal at the Korea Open, clinching her first top-10 victory over world No. 10, Jeļena Ostapenko, in straight sets.

Alexandrova made an astonishing run at another international tournament, now in Linz, Austria, reaching the final of a WTA tournament for the first time.

Sailing through the qualifying rounds with the loss of just four games, Alexandrova beat compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets to reach her first WTA semifinal.

There, she recovered from a bagel to beat former top-10 player Andrea Petkovic and booked her spot in the final.

However, she was defeated by Camila Giorgi in straight sets, but nonetheless made her return to the top 100 with her fantastic run.

She ended the season by tradition at Limoges, winning the title for the second time in her career, after beating Evgeniya Rodina in straight sets.

Ekaterina Evgenyevna Alexandrova (Екатери́на Евге́ньевна Александро́ва; ; born 15 November 1994) is a Russian professional tennis player.

She has won four WTA singles titles, three WTA 125 titles and seven singles titles on the ITF Circuit.

In February 2023, she reached her best singles ranking of No. 16.

On 26 September 2022, she also peaked at No. 58 in the WTA doubles rankings.

Since 2006, Alexandrova has been living and training in Prague, Czech Republic, with her parents and two siblings, a brother and a sister.

They moved after travelling to the city for a youth tournament, attracted by the local availability of tennis courts compared to Russia.

According to the player, the Russian Tennis Federation didn't know about her existence before 2016 and she has never been good enough to cause interest from the Czech Tennis Association in terms of citizenship switch.

However, she has long been tempted by the easier life possibility with a Czech passport, especially considering travel visas, but wasn't able to implement the opportunity at a certain point — after collecting all the necessary documents she couldn't decide if another citizenship is really the right decision for her.

She hasn't applied for the Czech citizenship yet.

Alexandrova speaks Russian and Czech fluently, and also English, to a lesser extent.

Her father Evgeny is her coach, and Steffi Graf was her childhood tennis idol.

Despite starting the year as the world No. 291, Alexandrova clinched her fifth ITF title at the $10k event in Trnava.

Alexandrova then made her WTA Tour singles debut at the 2016 Katowice Open where she qualified for the main draw, after surviving the qualifying rounds as an unseeded player.

In her first WTA Tour main-draw match, she defeated world No. 115, Klára Koukalová, before falling to eventual finalist Camila Giorgi in three sets.

In the first grass-court tournament of her career, she qualified for a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at Wimbledon after ten players ahead of her withdrew.

It was also her first major appearance, prevailing 14–12 and 13–11 against Stephanie Vogt and Harriet Dart, respectively, to reach the main draw.

Overall, she played 108 games in just three matches.

In the first round, she defeated former world No. 1, Ana Ivanovic, in straight sets, causing one of the biggest upsets in the tournament.

Immediately after her Wimbledon run, Alexandrova returned onto clay and reached the final of the ITS Cup, a $50k event, losing there to compatriot and top seed Elizaveta Kulichkova, in three sets.

At the Tournoi de Québec, she claimed the biggest win of her career against world No. 59, Julia Görges, in the first round.

Entering the WTA 125 Open de Limoges as the world No. 133, Alexandrova caused a huge shock by ending the season with the biggest title of her career.

En route, she defeated three local favourites: fourth-seeded Pauline Parmentier in the second round, second-seeded Alizé Cornet in the semifinals, and top-seeded world No. 24, Caroline Garcia, in the final.

In the 2017 season, Alexandrova continued to be a constant presence on the WTA Tour but not achieving any major success.