LONDON, June 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Diana Shnaider cleared the opening round of the 2025 Wimbledon tennis tournament in London defeating on Monday Moyuka Uchijima of Japan.
The match between the 12th-seed Shnaider, who plays under a neutral status at international tennis tournaments, and Uchijima from Japan ended with the Russian’s 7-6 (7-5); 6-3 win.
Shnaider, 21, is currently ranked 15th in the WTA Rankings. She has four WTA titles to her name, winning all of them in the previous tennis season. Her best result in Grand Slams was advancing to Round 4 of the 2024 US Open.
Playing at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, she won a silver medal in women’s doubles with partner Mirra Andreeva.
This year’s Wimbledon takes place between June 30 and July 13 and offers a total of 50 million Euro [some $57.4 million] in prize money. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic are the reigning Wimbledon 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.