Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva (82) advanced to the quarterfinals of the WTA-250 Unicredit Iasi Open in Romania, defeating Alina Charaeva (118), who has been representing Armenia since July, 6:3, 6:3. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

In the first round, Putintseva won a tough match against American Claire Liu (111) – 7:5, 6:4. Charaeva, who is taking her first steps on the tour, secured her first win at the '250' level in the opening round. The 24-year-old native of Samara, who has been training in Spain for eight years, crushed Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva of Andorra (114) 6:0, 6:1.

In the first set, Putintseva's experience and skill, having been ranked as high as world No. 20, prevailed. Breaking her opponent's serve in the very first game, Yulia made a second break in the ninth game – 6:3.

At the start of the second set, using her advantage in height (Charaeva is 183 cm tall compared to Putintseva's 163 cm), the protégé of two-time Australian Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova improved her game. Charaeva immediately broke and confirmed it – 2:0.

On the fourth break point, the Kazakhstani player returned the favor, took the lead (4:3), and immediately broke again. Soon, on the second match point, Yulia stopped the match clock at 1 hour 33 minutes – 6:3, 6:3. Aces were 3:1. Total points won were 68:52.

For a spot in the semifinals, Putintseva will face the winner of the match between Mayar Sherif (97) of Egypt and Spaniard Caitlin Quevedo (100).

Charaeva has another match today. Partnering with Kazakhstan's Zhibek Kulambayeva (174), Alina will face Russians Maria Kozyreva (59) and Elena Pridankina (76).

In the singles qualifying, Kulambayeva lost to Spaniard Leyre Romero Gormaz (143) – 1:6, 4:6.

The Unicredit Iasi Open tennis tournament was established recently – in 2022. In 2025, the clay-court tournament in Iasi replaced the Hungarian Grand Prix on the WTA calendar and received the '250' category.

The singles title has been won three times by local players, except in 2024 when young Russian star Mirra Andreeva triumphed. The doubles title that year was won by the duo of Anna Danilina (Kazakhstan) and Irina Khromacheva (Russia).

The prize fund for the 2026 Unicredit Iasi Open is $283,350. The top seed, Romanian Jaqueline Cristian (37), withdrew from the tournament at the last moment. Her spot in the draw was taken by Putintseva.