CHINA OPEN

October 6, 2026

Ekaterina Alexandrova

Mixed Zone

E. ALEXANDROVA/L. Noskova

6-2, 6-2

Q. How does it feel to be in the final eight here?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: It feels great. Today's match, it wasn't easy because I know Linda, she plays so well, especially this season. I knew it's going to be difficult. With the sun today at the start, it wasn't easy because it was difficult to see the ball.

I think it was a pretty good match for me. Good serve, good shots. I'm overall kind of happy with the performance and I'm glad that I could finish in two sets.

Just be in the quarterfinal here in Beijing, I think it's a great start for the whole, like, Asia Swing.

Q. You obviously have weeks where it seems like everything falls into place, you're playing incredibly well. When you have those weeks, what is specifically clicking for you?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Uhm... I don't know. It's a good question because sometimes it's just like it feels like everything is working, and some weeks it seems like nothing is working.

I don't know. Maybe it's just like the surface. Maybe it's just the ball. Maybe it's just like the mindset. But sometimes I don't want to say like relax, but a little bit like let go of the situation, you maybe start thinking and focusing on the different things than usually. Maybe that's helping.

But I don't know. I think here maybe this year helped a lot the switch of the balls. They heavier than it used to be. I think it suits my kind of game more.

I don't know. I just kind of like, you know, switched my focus from adjusting to the balls more like what should I do on the court.

Again, it's not easy for me to say one particular thing because it's always kind of like mix of the things.

Q. You played at the China Open for many years. How does it feel? What is the difference this year?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: I really like this part of the season, like the autumn feel, the outdoor courts. It's super nice. I love like the whole Asia Swing. I think every country, every cities we play, it's amazing. You can enjoy both on court and off court.

The tournament was always great. Every year I played, it was amazing. Every year they manage to do it even better. Like the food, the hotel, everything, the staff, everything is amazing. You just enjoying your time off court. I don't know. Every year it's better.

Q. Next up is Mirra. You've played her on both grass and clay. First hard court matchup. Your thoughts on that matchup?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Yeah, we played I think one time this year. For sure it's not going to be easy because she plays so well. She's amazing player.

I don't know. Like, we'll see how it will look on the hard court because before we played on the clay, on the grass. On the hard court, it can be different.

I mean, I don't have really any expectations. I probably will go on the court and I will try to do the same thing I did like all the matches before: focus more on things that I can do and try to enjoy it, just go with the flow (laughter).

Q. You've never lost to Mirra. She's aware of that. She told us that. Can that create pressure? It's great success, obviously a good record to have, but sometimes you don't want that to end, or you just wipe it out? How does it impact you?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: I'm trying not to think about that. When you thinking about that, it's create more like tension and more like pressure on yourself.

I mean, it's going to be difficult, for sure. If you put even more pressure on yourself, it's probably won't help you.

So yeah, I think we practiced a lot of time together. We played a couple times. Every match you would play, it's different. Every time is a different condition.

You can have two matches before and third will be completely different than that. It's a nice statistics, but it's better not to think about it (smiling).

Q. Besides saying win the last point, what are you going to have to do? You said you're going to do something similar to what you've done before. But it is a completely different surface. You'd have to change something, wouldn't you?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: I think maybe yeah, kind of in the way to readjusting to the surface. Kind of like a tactics and game, I think I will keep it the same way as all previous matches here.

I didn't had like any particular specific tactics for each match. It was more like the things I want to try to do on the court or things that I need to focus on.

For me it helps so much more than I'm focusing on particular shots or any particular tactics. Sometimes it's not working and you feel kind of like frustrated, you don't know what to do.

Here I'm trying kind of like see the things I can or cannot do on the court, try different things if one thing it's not work.

It's more about thinking about your game, not the opponent. Where should you hit to win the ball? It's more like how it's better to do the shot so I can just repeat the shot maybe like 10 times. It's more like this probably.

Q. Off the court you always seem like a very relaxed, chilled-out person. On the court you talk a lot about pressure, you talk a lot about that impact on your game sometimes. When you talk about pressure, where does that pressure come from? Is it because you want to win so bad, don't want to lose? Prize money? Ranking points? What is it that creates that pressure?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: I think it's just like everything together because when you good on the court, I don't know like everyone else, but sometimes it's just like too many thoughts. When you go, you see if I win, how many points can I gain, how many points will I lose. If I'm going to win here, what's going to happen. They're going so fast in your head, sometimes it's like overwhelming.

I don't know. When you're on the court, you have all those thoughts like how do I need to play the next point, what happened the point before. It's like one thought after another. Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation when you're on these thoughts and you're just thinking on the court, not playing.

For me, when I'm outside the court, I feel like happy and super relaxed. On the court, I mean, I'm still kind of like this way. I don't know, I'm kind of like in the focus mode. When I'm in the focus mode, it looks like I'm dying on the court, like I'm super frustrated or angry. I saw the videos (laughter).

I don't know. My face on the court, I can do nothing about it, so... I'm kind of used to that. For me, I just kind of, yeah...

But yeah, I mean, every match is difficult and different. Every match you need to readjust. When you're not thinking, it's easier.

Q. What do you do to chill?

EKATERINA ALEXANDROVA: Like basic stuff. You practice, you eat lunch, I don't know, dinner, some kind of treatment, warm-ups and everything. It's easy atmosphere because you practice. You kind of like do it every day. You don't have any pressure like what you're going to do on the court, what you're going to do before or after. It's kind of like routine.

For me, when you do this kind of routine your mind is resting. Your body too. It's kind of like predictable. On the court you never know what to expect. That's create the tension.

Maybe also outside the court we can do, I don't know, some exploring around the hotels or the city is close enough. Yeah, there's a lot of options we can do, just not to think about important stuff.