MONTERREY, Mexico :Russian second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova beat defending champion Linda Noskova 7-6(5) 4-6 6-2 at the Monterrey Open on Thursday to secure her place in the semi-finals of the U.S. Open tune-up event.

Alexandrova, 14th in the world rankings, started the decider brightly after two tightly contested sets and while Czech Noskova fought back to level at 2-2 the Russian regained control to seal victory in just over two hours at the WTA 500 event.

"I'm really glad that I could make it through, even in three sets, because it was difficult today — she served so well, she hit so hard from the baseline that sometimes there was nothing I could do," Alexandrova said.

Next up for Alexandrova is Czech Marie Bouzkova, who carved out a comfortable 6-3 6-2 win over Croatian Antonia Ruz

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