Bartunkova reaches first WTA 1000 semifinal as Andreeva advances in Beijing

Nikola Bartunkova earned her first appearance in a WTA 1000 semifinal on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Karolina Muchova at the China Open. According to the WTA's match report, the 26th seed needed 67 minutes to beat her seventh-seeded Czech compatriot and continue her breakthrough tournament in Beijing.

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The 20-year-old raced into a 5-0 lead before Muchova recovered three games and saved five set points. Bartunkova converted her sixth opportunity to secure the opening set, then won every game in the second. She finished with 19 winners to Muchova's 12, while the older player's unforced-error total reached 37.

The result was Bartunkova's third career victory over a top-10 opponent, following wins against Belinda Bencic at the Australian Open and Aryna Sabalenka earlier in Beijing. Ranked 34th this week after finishing 2025 at No. 130, she is set to enter the top 30 after the tournament, the WTA reported. Her previous tour-level semifinal appearances came in Guadalajara in 2025 and Monterrey in 2026; she has yet to reach a final.

Mirra Andreeva secured the other place in their semifinal by defeating 19th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6(4), 7-6(3). The WTA's separate report recorded a match time of one hour and 53 minutes. It was Andreeva's first tour-level win against Alexandrova after two defeats in which she had not won a set.

Andreeva led 4-1 in the second set and later served for the match at 5-3, but Alexandrova recovered to force another tiebreak. Both players broke serve four times. Andreeva converted four of her seven break-point chances, compared with four of 10 for Alexandrova, and finished with 23 winners against 16 unforced errors.

The victory gave Andreeva her first Beijing semifinal appearance and her fourth at WTA 1000 level. The WTA said only Coco Gauff, with five, had reached more semifinals at that level as a teenager since the format began in 2009. Andreeva and Bartunkova have met once before, at last month's US Open, where Andreeva won 6-2, 7-6(5).