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Zakharova advances, joins group of ten Russian women in US Open second round

The 2025 US Open is being held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York between August 24 and September 7

NEW YORK, August 27. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Anastasia Zakharova cleared the opening round of the 2025 US Open on Tuesday night, cruising past Armenia’s Elina Avanesyan with a straight sets win.

The unseeded Russian, who is playing under neutral status at the tournament, defeated her opponent 6-3; 6-4 and is now set to play in the next round against Germany’s Laura Siegemund. The German player won her opening round match against Russia’s Diana Shnaider, the champion of last week’s WTA Monterrey Open tennis tournament.

With Zakharova’s win on Tuesday, 10 out of Russia's 13 women have advanced at the Grand Slam tournament in New York. The ten winners are: Mirra Andreeva, Anastasia Potapova, Polina Kudermetova, Yekaterina Alexandrova, Lyudmila Samsonova, Anna Kalinskaya, Anna Blinkova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Kamilla Rakhimova and Anastasia Zakharova.

Zakharova, 23, is currently 90th in the WTA Rankings. She has never won a WTA title. In Grand Slams, the best she has done is reaching the third round of the 2024 Australian Open.

Avanesyan, 22, is a former Russian player, currently ranked 90th in the world. She also has never won a WTA title. Her best showing at Grand Slams was twice reaching the fourth round of the French Open (2023, 2024). Last summer she changed her national sports affiliation from Russian to Armenian.

The 2025 US Open is being held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York between August 24 and September 7. The tournament will award $90 million in prize money. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus are the reigning 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 moved to exclude 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 participating in the 2022 Davis Cup and the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.

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