SYDNEY, January 12. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Anna Blinkova sweated out a victory late on Sunday night at the 2025 Australian Open to proceed into the tournament’s Round 2.
In a match that lasted for over two hours and 30 minutes Blinkova managed to come back from the devastating opening set defeat to eventually outplay Australia’s 30-year-old Daria Saville 1-6; 6-4; 7-5.
Blinkova, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, is now set to face in the next round against the winner of another tournament’s opening match between Russia’s Polina Kudermetova and Magdalena Frech (23rd-seed) from Poland.
The 26-year-old Russian player is currently ranked 73rd in the WTA Rankings, and has one career WTA tournament title under her belt. She has played in numerous Grand Slam tournaments, but has never made it past the 3rd round.
The 2025 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park on January 12-26 and has a purse of $59.7 million in prize money up for grabs. The opening tournament of the annual Grand Slam series in Australia marks its 113th edition this year. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka are the reigning Australian Open 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.
However, the Women Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.