SYDNEY, January 16. /TASS/. Twelve Russian tennis players will compete in Australia in the men’s and women’s draws for a shot to raise the trophy at this year’s opening Grand Slam series tournament, the 2026 Australian Open.
The tournament, which kicks off this Sunday, will be played on the illustrious blue clay courts at Melbourne Park, and runs between January 18 and February 1, with a total purse of $74.9 million.
The first of the four Grand Slams, this year’s Australian Open is celebrating its 114th anniversary. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys of the United States are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.
The winningest player in men’s singles history is Serbian Novak Djokovic, who has won 10 Australian Open titles, a record he hopes to add to this year. On the women’s side, Australian Margaret Court holds the record for most titles with 11.
Representing Russia this year will be 12 men and women. All Russian players in both categories will be playing under a neutral status at the tournament, without the national flag and country’s anthem.
Russia has a number of top players capable of making deep runs at the Australian Open, but none of them are listed among the main favorites to win the tournament. In the gentlemen’s draw, the main contenders are world number one Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and Jannik Sinner, who is the two-time defending champion.
A Russian has won the Australian Open three times in history: Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1999 and Marat Safin in 2005 in men’s singles and Maria Sharapova in women’s singles in 2008.
In this year’s men’s opening round, Daniil Medvedev, seeded 11th, will face Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands, Andrey Rublev (the 13th-seed) - against Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi, and Karen Khachanov (the 15th-seed) squares off against American Alex Michelsen.
In the women's singles opening round of the tournament Russia’s top female Mirra Andreeva (8th) will play in the first round against Croatian Donna Vekic, the 70th-ranked player in the world.
Russia’s Yekaterina Alexandrova (11th) will play against Zeynep Senmez from Turkey, who made it to the main draw after advancing in qualifying, Lyudmila Samsonova (18th) - against German Laura Siegemund, Diana Shnaider (23rd) - against Barbora Krejcikova from the Czech Republic, Anna Kalinskaya (31st) - against UK’s Sonai Kartal, Anna Blinkova - against Australian Talia Gibson (wildcard), Oksana Selekhmetyeva - against German Ella Seidel, Anastasia Zakharova - against Jessica Pegula from the United States (6th) and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova against China's Bai Zhaoxuan.
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.