LONDON, July 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova and teammate Elize Martens from Belgium advanced to the women’s doubles final at Wimbledon on Friday.
Kudermetova, who plays under a neutral flag at the tournament, and Martens, seeded 8th, took out their semifinal opponents Olivia Gadecki from Australia and American Desirae Krawczyk 3-6; 6-0; 6-3 in about two hours.
The Kudermetova-Martens duo will now play for the 2025 Wimbledon championship in women’s doubles against the winner of the other doubles’ semifinal round set to take place later in the day, when Katerina Siniakova from the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend from the United States will play for a spot in the final against the duo of Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan and Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia.
Russia’s Kudermetova, 28, is currently ranked 46th in the WTA (the Women’s Tennis Association) Rankings. She has two career WTA titles. Her best result playing in Grand Slam singles was when she reached the quarterfinals of the 2022 French Open.
She also won the 2021 Billie Jean King Cup as part of the Russian national team. Kudermetova has had a little more success playing in women's doubles, winning eight WTA titles, including two WTA titles in 2022 and 2023.
Martens, 29, is the 23rd-ranked player in the world. She has won 30 career WTA titles, 21 of them in doubles competitions. The Belgian player has four Grand Slam doubles titles to her name: at the 2019 US Open, 2021 Wimbledon and at the 2021 and 2024 Australian Open.
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.