THE HAGUE, June 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Yekaterina Alexandrova advanced to the 3rd-Round of the 2025 Libema Open tennis tournament on Wednesday.
In a match that lasted 1 hour 18 minutes the 2nd-seeded Alexandrova outplayed her unseeded fellow countrywoman Anna Blinkova in straight-set win 6:0, 7:5 and is now set to play in the quarterfinals of the tournament against the winner of the duel between unseeded Greet Minnen from Belgium and Russia’s 8th-seed Veronika Kudermetova.
Alexandrova, 30, plays as a neutral athlete at international tennis tournaments. She is currently ranked 19th in the WTA Rankings and has five career WTA tournament titles under her belt. Her best career finish in Grand Slams was in 2023, when she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon. She is also the winner of the 2021 Billie Jean King Cup.
Russia’s Blinkova, 26, is currently ranked 70th in the WTA Rankings, and has one career WTA tournament title under her belt. She has played in numerous Grand Slam tournaments, but has never made it past the 3rd round.
The 2025 Libema Open is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at Autotron Rosmalen in Rosmalen, Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, between June 9 and 15. The tournament is the 34th edition of the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships and is classified as an ATP 250 event on the 2025 ATP Tour and a WTA 250 event on the 2025 WTA Tour.
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.