Oksana Selekhmetyeva / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
A little-known athlete won the biggest victory of her career.
Oksana Selekhmetyeva was not one of the favorites at the Australian Open, but continues to compete in Melbourne, despite her modest rating. Even the titled Paula Badosa could not stop the Russian woman from getting wild.
“Focused on the negative”
Selekhmetyeva belongs to the type of athletes whose transition from talented juniors to adult tennis was slightly delayed. Oksana has won junior Grand Slam tournaments, but only made her top 100 debut at the end of last season at the age of 22. Progress was boosted by two WTA 125 titles won in September and October.
The Russian turned 23 in January but has never made it past the first round at a Grand Slam tournament. This time, the high rating helped Oksana save energy, freeing her from participating in the qualifications. Previously, preliminary matches often became a stumbling block for the tennis player.
The victory over Ella Seidel in the first round of the Melbourne tournament could already be considered a success. Not much was expected from the confrontation with the experienced Paula Badosa. At the peak of her career, the Spaniard ranked second in the WTA rankings, and was seeded 25th at the Australian Open. Last season she reached the semi-finals and now she was also determined to achieve a high result, despite a difficult return from injury.
— I didn’t enjoy the game and was too focused on the results and negativity. This year, one of my goals is to change that,” Badosa wrote on social media.
Paula Badosa / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
Biggest career win
Oksana, despite a wounded hip, started the match strongly against a more experienced opponent. She took four games in a row, truly discouraging the Spaniard. But Paula managed to return to the fight and equalized the score – 4:4. It seemed that the former second racket of the world was about to put the finishing touches on Selekhmetyeva, but our tennis player pulled herself together in time and made an important break.
In the tenth game, Oksana served for the set, but her mistakes led to Paula being close to a reverse break – 15:40. However, the Russian woman, with incredible character, managed to defend her serve and take the set – 6:4. Badosa could only grab his head.
The start of the second game turned out to be smoother, but in the third game Oksana made a break again. After this, she began to dictate the course of the meeting more and more confidently. Badosa also helped our athlete, regularly making unforced errors. This led to the fact that by the eighth game the Spaniard was on the verge of defeat, losing with a score of 2:5.
In the end, Paula stoically resisted defeat, reducing the gap to a minimum. But the Russian tennis player was more worthy of the victory, taking the second game too – 6:4.
Badosa became the first tennis player from the top 30 in the world rankings to beat Selekhmetyeva. Thanks to reaching the third round, Oksana has already risen to 75th position in the live ranking. In the next round, an even more severe test awaits her in the person of the sixth racket of the world, American Jessica Pegula.
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