BEIJING, October 22. /TASS/. Russia’s tennis star Diana Shnaider reached the quarterfinals of the 2026 Ningbo Open tournament in China by defeating on Thursday Alexandra Eala from the Philippines.

In the match that lasted for 1 hours 55 minutes the 6th-seeded Russian, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, defeated unseeded Eala in straight sets 7-5; 6-4 and is now set to play in the quarterfinals round against 4th-seeded Iva Jovic from the United States.

It was the first-ever encounter between Shnaider and Eala at WTA tournaments and speaking after the match the Russian player said: "You expect the slice serve into the body, definitely a little more variation and a different type of ball strike."

"You just gotta get used to the ball - I guess the first few games you just get used to the spin, where are her strengths, what is her weakness," the official WTA website quoted Shnaider as saying after her match against Eala.

"You just gotta give yourself a little more time to adjust, then it becomes a bit easier as the games go on," she added.

Shnaider, 22, is currently ranked 13th in the WTA Rankings. She holds five WTA titles. Her best result in Grand Slams was reaching the semis at 2026 French Open. At the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, she captured a silver medal in women’s doubles with partner Mirra Andreeva.

The 2026 Ningbo Open is the WTA 500 class tournament played on hard courts at the Yinzhou Tennis Center in China on October 19-25 and it offers $1.2 million in prize money. Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina is the tournament’s reigning champion.

Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to exclude 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 exclude 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 scrapping 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.