DUBAI, February 21. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Anna Kalinskaya advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2024 WTA Dubai Open Tennis tournament after defeating Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday.

The unseeded Russian, who is playing in the tournament under a neutral status, outplayed World No. 9 Ostapenko in straight sets 6-4; 7-5. Kalinskaya will now await the winner of the match between Coco Gauff of the United States and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

The 2024 Dubai Open Tennis tournament is a WTA-ranked 1000 competition on the organization’s calendar and takes place at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in Dubai between February 18 and 24.

The tournament is played on outdoor hard courts and offers over $3.2 million in prize money. World No. 12 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic is the reigning champion.

Kalinskaya, 25, is ranked 40th in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Rankings and has zero WTA titles in her career. This year, she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, her best finish at any Grand Slam in her career.

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 canceling 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.