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Russia’s Kasatkina storms into Round 3 of 2025 Australian Open with straight sets win

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

SYDNEY, January 16. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina cruised past China’s Yafan Wang on Thursday at the Australian Open tournament in Melbourne, clinching a spot in the third round.

In a Round 2 match that lasted less than one hour and 20 minutes, the 9th-seeded Kasatkina took down her unseeded Chinese opponent 6-2; 6-0. Kasatkina, who is playing as a neutral at the season’s first Grand Slam, will now fight for a berth in Round 4 as she gets set to face 24th-seeded Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan.

Kasatkina, 27, is currently ranked 10th in the WTA (the Women’s Tennis Association) Rankings and has eight 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 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.

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