SYDNEY, January 17. /TASS/. Russian teen Mirra Andreeva cleared Round 3 of the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament after taking down Poland’s Magdalena Frech on Friday, and she will now face the tournament’s reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka in her next match.
In a Round 3 match that lasted just under two hours, the 14th-seeded Russian prevailed over the 23rd-seeded Polish player 6-2; 1-6; 6-2. Andreeva, who is playing at the tournament under a neutral status, will now face off in the next round against the tournament’s reigning champion and top-seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
Andreeva is a career 1-4 against Sabalenka, with the Belarusian beating the Russian teenager in straight sets 6-3; 6-2 during their most recent encounter in the semifinals at the 2025 WTA Brisbane International.
"Here we are again," the official website of the 2025 Australian Open quoted Andreeva as saying about her upcoming match with Sabalenka.
"I know that probably it's going to be an entertaining match, and of course, I'm going to do everything possible. I'm going to give it my best," she added.
Andreeva, 17, is currently ranked 15th in the WTA (the Women's Tennis Association) Rankings. Her best result playing at the Grand Slam series was reaching the semifinals of the 2024 French Open. She has one WTA title so far in her career and also won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in women's doubles. In 2023, the WTA named Andreeva the rookie of the year.
As of today, two Russian players have already reached the fourth round of the 2025 Australian Open in women’s singles, those being Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Mirra Andreeva. Two more Russians, Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova, will take the court for their Round 3 matches tomorrow.
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.