Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva (79) successfully qualified for the WTA-500 tennis tournament in China. In the main draw of Ningbo Open-2026, she will join defending champion Elena Rybakina (1). This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Following her win over China's Yihan Qiu (1018) – 6:1, 7:6 (7:0), Putintseva confidently defeated American Alycia Parks (64) in qualifying – 6:2, 6:2.
It took the Kazakhstani just 1 hour and 15 minutes to prove her superiority over an opponent ranked higher than her. 6:2 – in breaks, 0:2 – in aces, 0:13 – in double faults, 64:39 – in total points won.
Putintseva's first opponent in the main draw is not yet determined. It is possible that it will be Rybakina. The tennis queen and reigning Ningbo-2025 champion skips the first round. In the second round, she will face either Spain's Cristina Bucsa (13) or one of six qualifiers. The exact opponent will be determined after the qualifying ends.
Anna Danilina (7) will also compete in Ningbo. With her new partner Jiang Xinyu (25), Anna is seeded fourth. For a place in the quarterfinals, the Kazakh-Chinese duo will compete against Desirae Krawczyk (USA, 31) and Fanny Stollar (Hungary, 64).
The women's Ningbo Open on hard courts was founded in 2010 as an alternative to the WTA tournament in Tokyo. For tennis players with not the highest rankings.
In 2013, the Ningbo Open received the '125' status, in 2023 – '250', and in 2024 – '500'. The last champions are Magda Linette (Poland), Ons Jabeur (Tunisia) and current Australian Daria Kasatkina, who in 2024 still represented Russia.
Last year, the tournament was won by Rybakina, who defeated Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova in the final – 3:6, 6:0, 6:2.
The prize fund of Ningbo Open-2026 is $1.2 million.