SIDNEY, January 16. /TASS/. Russia’s top female tennis player Daria Kasatkina won her opening round match at the 2024 Australian Open, which kicked off last Sunday in Melbourne.
In a meeting that lasted a little under two hours, the 14th-seeded Kasatkina, who is playing at the tournament under a neutral status, defeated unseeded American Peyton Stearns 6-2; 3-6; 6-2.
The Russian is now set to face off in the next round against another US tennis player, Sloane Stephens, who cruised past wildcard Olivia Gadecki of Australia with a straight sets win of 6-3; 6-1 in their first round battle.
Kasatkina, 26, is currently ranked 13th 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 2024 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park on January 14-28 and has a purse of $57.8 mln in prize money up for grabs. The opening tournament of the annual Grand Slam series in Australia marks its 112th edition this year. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.
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.