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15 Jan, 19:27

Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova ousts compatriot Potapova from 2025 Australian Open

She will now face Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the next round

SYDNEY, January 15. /TASS/. Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova advanced to Round 3 of the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament after defeating compatriot Anastasia Potapova on Wednesday.

In a Round 2 match that lasted about two and a half hours, the 27th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova prevailed over the unseeded Potapova 7-6 (7-2); 2-6; 6-2. She will now face Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the next round.

Siegemund, 36, advanced to the third round of the tournament after knocking off China’s Qinwen Zheng, who was last year’s runner-up at the Australian Open, currently ranked No. 5 in the WTA (the Women’s Tennis Association) Rankings.

The Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) official website quoted the seasoned German tennis player as saying after the match with Qinwen Zheng: "Obviously I'm very happy and very proud of my performance."

"I expected a very, very tough game against this kind of top player. I think she's one of the best in the world," Siegemund stated. "It's never going to be easy, and there will be continuously through the match, like, tough situations to solve. But I wanted to come out, you know, courageous. I wanted to show the variety of my game, be very aggressive, and that's what I did."

Pavlyuchenkova, 33, is the world’s 32nd-ranked player, according to the WTA. She has 12 career WTA titles. Her best result at Grand Slams was in 2021 when she reached the final of the French Open.

The Russian, who is playing internationally under a neutral status, also won a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in mixed doubles (with teammate Andrey Rublev), as well as the 2021 Billie Jean King Cup as part of the Russian national team.

The 2025 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park on January 12-26 and has a purse of $59.7 million in prize money up for grabs. The season’s first Grand Slam, this year marks the 113th edition of the tournament. Italy’s Jannik Sinner 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 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.