MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Playing in the semifinals round of the 2024 Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Adelaide International tennis tournament on Friday, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko defeated Russian tennis player Yekaterina Alexandrova.
Six-seed Ostapenko defeated the unseeded Alexandrova in straight sets 6-2; 7-6 (7-3) and the Latvian player is now set to face off in the final against another Russian player, Daria Kasatkina.
"It was a tough match, she is a tough player, she served really big. I feel I am playing more aggressively and I was finding the chances and taking them," the WTA official website quoted Ostapenko as saying after her win over Alexandrova.
"Thank you for your support. It was an amazing atmosphere," she added.
Kasatkina was scheduled to play in the semifinals against Jessica Pegula of the United States today, but the American player decided to withdraw before the match started.
Ostapenko and Kasatkina will play for the 2024 WTA Adelaide International tournament title on January 13.
Kasatkina, 26, is currently ranked 15th in the WTA Rankings and has six WTA tournament titles to her name. To date, her best result in Grand Slams was in 2022 when she reached the semifinals of the French Open. She was also part of the Russian team that won the 2021 Billie Jean King Cup.
The Adelaide International is a WTA 500 tennis tournament, which first took place in 2020. It is played on outdoor hard courts. This year, the tournament runs from January 8-13 and offers a purse of over $922,570 in prize money. Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic is the tournament’s reigning champion, but she is skipping this year’s competition.
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 of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from 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.