New Delhi, Oct. 8 -- Fourth seed Mirra Andreeva finally beat Ekaterina Alexandrova, winning a tight China Open quarterfinal 7-6(4), 7-6(3) on Thursday in Beijing. The all-Russian match lasted 1 hour and 55 minutes on the outdoor hard courts at the National Tennis Center, and it sent the 19-year-old into the semifinals of the WTA 1000 event.

Neither player could pull clear. Both sets went to a tiebreak, and Andreeva won both of them. Andreeva had lost both earlier matches to Alexandrova and had not won a set in either. She left the National Tennis Center with her first win in the rivalry, and as the youngest player to reach the China Open semifinals since Agnes Szavay in 2007.

Nothing was settled in regulation. Mirra Andreeva edged the o...