BEIJING, October 18. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daria Kasatkina moved on to the semifinals of the 2024 WTA Ningbo Open tennis tournament in China on Friday.

In the quarterfinals, the 5th-seeded Kastatkina eked out a victory in an almost three-hour long match against her unseeded opponent Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan, needing a third-set tiebreak to send her home 6-4; 1-6; 7-6 (8-6).

"I didn't want three sets, for sure," the Women Tennis Association’s (WTA) press office quoted her as saying after the match. "But I was expecting something like that, because always when I play against Yulia something like that happens."

"I feel the whole match I was always down in the score, but I knew I would have a chance to come back, and I did. Tennis is like that. If you fight, 99% of the time you get your chance. I thought the level was pretty high - we fought our butts off through this match," Kasatkina added.

The Russian, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, will now await the winner of the quarterfinals match between 6th-seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and 8th-seeded Spaniard Paula Badosa in the next round.

Kasatkina, 27, is currently ranked 11th in the WTA Rankings and has seven WTA tournament titles to her name. To date, her best result in Grand Slams was in 2022 when she reached the semifinals of the French Open. She was also part of the Russian team that won the 2021 Billie Jean King Cup.

The 2024 Ningbo Open tennis tournament has the WTA 500 category and it is played on outdoor hard courts at the Yinzhou Tennis Center in China’s Ningbo between October 14 and 20. Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur is the reigning champion at the Ningbo Open tennis tournament, defeating Russia's Diana Shnaider in last year's final.

Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC's recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also canceling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.

On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.

However, the Women Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.