NEW YORK, August 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova cleared the opening round of the 2023 US Open, which kicked off in New York on August 28.

The Russian advanced to the next round of the Grand Slam tournament with 6-2; 6-4 straight sets win over Fiona Crawley of the United States.

Pavlychenkova is now set to face off against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who entered the 2nd round after defeating in straight sets Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsman 6-3; 6-1.

The 32-year-old Russian is the winner of 12 Women Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments and her best result playing at the Grand Slam tournaments was reaching the final of the 2021 French Open.

Pavluychenkova, who is currently ranked 98th in the WTA Rankings, is also the winner of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in mixed doubles, where she played in a pair with Russia’s Andrey Rublev. Playing for the Russian national team, she is the winner of the 2020-2021 Billie Jean King Cup.

The 2023 US Open is being held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York between August 28 and September 10. The tournament has $65 mln in prize money up for grabs. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Poland’s Iga Swiatek are the defending champions at the 2023 US Open in the men’s and women's singles, respectively.

Tennis players from Russia and Belarus are participating in the tournament under a neutral status due to the current sanctions regime.

Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also cancelling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.

On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.

However, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.