BEIJING, October 10. /TASS/. Italian Jasmine Paolini defeated unseeded Russian Erika Andreeva on Thursday in Round 3 of the 2024 WTA (Women Tennis Association) Wuhan Open tennis tournament in China.

The 3rd-seeded Paolini was just too much for her Russian opponent, taking her down in straight sets 6-3; 6-2. She will now get set to play in the next round against China’s Quinwen Zheng, who came back from a set down to win her match against Canadian Leylah Fernandez 5-7; 6-3; 6-0.

Erika Andreeva, 20, is ranked 70th in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Rankings. She has zero WTA titles in her young career, and on the Grand Slam circuit, her best finish was earlier this year, when she reached Round 2 of Wimbledon.

The 2024 Wuhan Open tennis tournament has the WTA 1000 category and it is played on outdoor hard courts at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center in Wuhan between October 7 and 13.

The tournament is being held for the first time since 2019 in Wuhan and it offers $3.2 million in prize money. Arina Soboloneko of Belarus is the tournament's reigning champion.

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 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 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.