Mirra Andreeva dumped out of Stuttgart Open, Ekaterina Alexandrova into Quarter-Finals

Mirra Andreeva was well beaten on Thursday afternoon at the Stuttgart Open as Ekaterina Alexandrova eased through to the Quarter-Finals 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour in Stuttgart.

It was a first career meeting between the pair and it was hard to gauge as to what Andreeva would turn up given she played her sister in the first round and she retired injured. She hadn't played before that since Miami where she lost to Amanda Anisimova.

But Alexandrova always proves to be a spoiler and was again in this case as she simply couldn't be touched by her compatriot. She sealed 66% of her first serve points and 56% of her second serve points in comparison especially the latter to 8/26 (31%) from Andreeva. She also only had to save three break chances. While Alexandrova put the pressure on from the get go to get 11 opportunities on the Andreeva serve taking six of them.

It was lights out tennis from the Russian who will now face either Magdalena Frech or Jessica Pegula in the Quarter-Finals. Iga Swiatek lurks in that section and faces either Emma Navarro or Jelena Ostapenko on Saturday.

There is no play on Friday as it is Good Friday so sporting events in Germany get ceased for the day. So this has meant that Aryna Sabalenka is through to the Quarter-Finals on Saturday without even playing. She faces Elise Mertens.

While for Andreeva, she moves on to Madrid where she made her name two years ago as a 15-year-old. She is now nearly 18 and a top 10 star, but Alexandrova has often proved herself to be a real spoiler when it comes to the big names and did so again in this regard.

Albeit with her sister retiring from their opening tie, it is hard to say where Andreeva sits currently heading into the main 1000 tournaments especially after such a good March.