SYDNEY, January 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Diana Shnaider cleared the opening round of the 2026 Adelaide International tennis tournament in Australia after defeating on Tuesday Leylah Fernandez of Canada.

In a match that lasted for an hour and forty minutes, the 9th-seeded Shnaider, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, outplayed her unseeded opponent from Canada in straight sets 7-5; 6-3.

"I knew it was going to be tough, but I prepared myself very well," the official WTA website quoted Shnaider as saying after the match. "I feel like the most important thing was just to stay focused and play every point, because I know she’s a great player."

"She makes winners. I make winners too. So I just tried to keep my composure and do my thing," she added.

The Russian is now set to play in the next round against Katerina Siniakova from the Czech Republic who reached the second round of the tournament by blazing past Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 6-0; 6-1.

Shnaider, 21, is currently ranked 23rd in the WTA Rankings. She holds five WTA titles. Her best result in Grand Slams was reaching Round 4 of the 2024 US Open. At the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, she captured a silver medal in women’s doubles with partner Mirra Andreeva.

The Adelaide International is a WTA 500 tennis tournament, which first took place in 2020. It is played on outdoor hard courts at the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre. This year, the tournament runs between January 12 and 17. Madison Keys of the United States is the tournament’s reigning champion.

Russian and Belarusian 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.