MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Aslan Karatsev confidently cleared 2nd round of the 2021 Australian Open, which kicked off on February 8, after defeating on Wednesday Egor Gerasimov of Belarus.
In a match that lasted 1 hour 33 minutes the 27-year-old Russian breezed past his 28-year-old Belarusian opponent with straight sets win of 6-0; 6-1; 6-0.
The 2021 Australian Open is the maiden tournament of the Grand Slam series for Karatsev, who is ranked as World’s No. 113 by the ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals).
Karatsev will clash in 3rd round with seed-8 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, who defeated earlier in the day Alexandre Muller of France 6-2; 6-0; 6-3.
The 2021 Australian Open tournament is played at Melbourne Park between February 8 and 21. It offers $61 million in prize money. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Sofia Kenin of the United States are the defending champions at the 2021 Australian Open in men's and women’s singles respectively.
This year’s opening Grand Slam tennis tournament is held with a limited number of spectators in attendance due to safety measures against COVID-19 pandemic. The allowed daily number of spectators at all courts stands at 30,000, which is half of the regular attendance.
