Rybakina sets up Ningbo title defense against Fernandez

World No. 1 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan beat No. 6 seed Diana Shnaider 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the final of the Ningbo WTA 500, where she will defend her title against Leylah Fernandez of Canada. Fernandez beat Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 in the second semifinal on Saturday.

Rybakina stays perfect against Shnaider

Rybakina, the top seed, improved to 3-0 against Shnaider; all three of their meetings have come this year, after Stuttgart on clay and Cincinnati on hard courts.

Rybakina, who became world No. 1 for the first time on September 14 after winning the US Open, is through to her sixth final of the year and the 28th of her career. She has won three titles in 2026, the Australian Open, Stuttgart and the US Open, which ties her with Aryna Sabalenka and Andreeva for the most this season.

Shnaider, 22 and ranked No. 13, had a strong record in Ningbo, where she was runner-up in 2023 and a semifinalist last year.

Fernandez into her 10th career final

Fernandez, ranked No. 30, reached her second final of the season, a month after winning the title in Singapore, and the 10th of her career. All six of her titles have come on hard courts. She has now won 13 of her last 16 matches.

She had to work hard for it. Before the semifinal she had spent almost eight hours on court in three matches: a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over No. 7 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium, a 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-3 win over qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova, last year’s runner-up.

The win leveled her head-to-head with Bouzkova at 1-1, seven years after the Czech beat her 6-0, 6-1 in Toronto in 2019. Bouzkova, ranked No. 26 and the champion in Nottingham and Bogota this season, had beaten Uzbek qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova 6-4, 6-4, Russian lucky loser Anastasia Zakharova 7-5, 6-2 and Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4. She was trying to become the first Czech player to reach the final at the BNB Ningbo Open.