Mirra Andreeva and Elina Avanesyan beat their opponents at the Australian Open

The fourth day of the Australian Open in Melbourne was marked by the brilliant performance of 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva. By defeating three-time Grand Slam finalist Ouns Jabir of Tunisia in the second round in just 54 minutes, she not only defeated her opponent, who is ranked sixth in the world classification, for the first time, but also had a good chance of reaching the quarter-finals. Later, another Russian tennis player Elina Avanesyan also defeated the eighth racket of the world, Greek Maria Sakkari, in two sets, and in the men’s half of the tournament Andrei Rublev and Karen Khachanov won further victories.

The meeting with Uns Jabir, who occupies sixth place in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking, was already the fifth match for Mirra Andreeva against a tennis player from the top ten. In the previous four, she invariably suffered defeats, although sometimes not without a fight. For example, in the fall in Beijing, the young Russian confidently took the first set against Elena Rybakina, but was unable to maintain her advantage. Soon after that failure, Andreeva completely switched to the training process.

Avoiding communication with the press and unnecessary pressure on the nervous system, the youngest tennis player of the top hundred began preparing for the new season in France, where she had been based before, but under the guidance of Russian coach Kirill Kryukov.

Apparently, this line of behavior turned out to be correct. Following her recent appearance in the quarterfinals at a tournament in Brisbane, where she gave up only ten games in the first three matches, she was followed by her first victory over an opponent from the world elite, and an unconditional victory.

There were, of course, certain prerequisites for Andreeva to be able to cope with Jabir. This, judging by her press conference after the first round match, was understood by the Tunisian tennis player herself, who, unlike most other representatives of the top 10, does not rely on power or stability, but on a varied, sometimes very spectacular game with various cuts and twists. In this case, Jabir’s problem was that this style is not very suitable for the surface laid in Melbourne, since skilled opponents who are in good physical condition have the opportunity to adapt to the various rotations of the ball and catch up with it even after the most skillful shortcuts. blows. Andreeva, on the other hand, has a varied tempo game, and it is not surprising that on the Rod Laver Court, the main arena of the Australian Open, where the tournament organizers assigned this match on Wednesday morning, she completely dictated her terms. The first set lasted only 20 minutes, the second – just over half an hour.

The Russian with pinpoint precision maneuvered Jabir into the corners, outplayed her in exchanges of blows on the baseline, and sometimes baffled her with her short shots.

As a result, 6:0, 6:2, and Andreeva has good prospects for reaching the quarterfinals. In the third round she meets the Frenchwoman Diane Parry, whom she confidently beat last year at Roland Garros, and in the 1/8 finals, in theory, she goes to the eleventh racket of the world, Barbora Krejcikova. This, of course, is a titled and very dangerous tennis player, but in personal meetings, the advantage here is on the side of the Russian, who beat the Czech at Wimbledon and in Beijing.

Andreeva was not the only Russian woman to excel on the fourth day of the tournament. Late in the evening in Melbourne, the spotlight was on Elina Avanesyan, who defeated the eighth racket of the world, Maria Sakkari. The Greek, despite her high ranking, was unable to advance beyond the second round at the fourth Grand Slam tournament in a row, while Avanesyan, who broke into the top 100 after reaching the fourth round at last year’s Roland Garros, has not yet defeated such strong opponents. Two major debutantes who qualified also played well: Maria Timofeeva, who defeated former world number one Danish Caroline Wozniacki, who received a wild card, and Anastasia Zakharova, who knocked Slovenian Kaia Juvan out of the bracket.

At the men’s Australian Open, events are developing more predictably so far. In the upper half of the bracket, all representatives of the top ten advanced to the third round, including Andrei Rublev, who, in a meeting with American Christopher Eubanks, a quarterfinalist at last year’s Wimbledon, showed almost perfect tennis and did not give up a single point on his serve in the second game. The Russian’s next opponent will be last year’s quarterfinalist, another US representative, Sebastian Korda, who poses a serious danger to any opponent in Melbourne. It will not be easy for Karen Khachanov, who, after defeating the American Alexander Kovacevic, will meet with the Czech Tomas Machac, who showed spectacular counterattacking tennis against the strong American Francis Tiafoe.

Evgeniy Fedyakov