Something paradoxical is happening at the Australian Open. While the audience is delighted by the young and promising Mirra Andreeva, Maria Timofeeva and Elina Avanesyan, the more famous and eminent Russians are losing en masse in the early stages. All five leaders of the national ranking did not reach the third round!

The situation is already being called a disaster.

Four losses in the first round

The starfall began with the departure of Lyudmila Samsonova. The first racket of Russia and the 13th number in the WTA rankings could not cope with the American Amanda Anisimova. Samsonova was defeated in 1 hour 24 minutes – 3:6, 4:6. It is worth noting that Anisimova is in 339th place in the ranking!

Then the fifth on the list, Anastasia Potapova, seeded 23rd in Australia, was eliminated. She failed to beat Kaya Juvan from Slovenia – 1:6, 4:6. The match with the 109th racket of the world ended for Potapova just 1 hour 12 minutes after the start.

Third in line was Ekaterina Alexandrova. The fourth racket of Russia, who received the 17th seed, lost to the German Laura Siegemund (78) in a difficult match. The tennis players spent more than three hours on the court, and Alexandrova lost with a score of 2:6, 6:3, 6:7 (9:11).

Another seeded Russian who was eliminated in the first round was Veronika Kudermetova. She failed to cope with the Swiss Victoria Golubic. The third racket of Russia lost, despite the high 15th seed and the 85th place of her opponent – 6:7 (4:7), 6:1, 1:6.

Couldn’t cope with powerful blows

Of the top five Russian tennis players, only Daria Kasatkina managed to get past the first round. At the start of the Australian Open, she beat Peyton Stearns from the USA – 6:2, 3:6, 6:2. But then the second Russian racket began to have serious problems.

In the second round, Kasatkina, seeded 14th, met with another American, Sloane Stephens, once the US Open champion. The match turned out to be tense: Daria took the first set (6:4), but then could not cope with her opponent’s powerful blows and lost the next two games – 6:4, 3:6, 3:6. The game lasted just over two hours.

Daria Kasatkina / Photo: © Phil Walter / Staf / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The defeat of all those sown is a disaster

After Kasatkina’s elimination, there were no seeded Russians left in the bracket. Now lesser-known tennis players will take the rap for everyone, and so far they are coping with their task with a bang. Mirra Andreeva destroyed the sixth racket of the world Ons Jabeur – 6:0, 6:2, and Maria Timofeeva snatched victory from the legendary Caroline Wozniacki – 1:6, 6:4, 6:1. Even the offenders of top players get the full treatment: for example, Kaya Yuvan lost to Anastasia Zakharova without a chance – 1:6, 1:6. Also, Anna Kalinskaya, Elina Avanesyan and Anna Blinkova made it to the third round, knocking out the third racket of the tournament, Elena Rybakina, from the fight for the title.

It is likely that in the second week of the tournament the Russians will have someone to cheer for. But the fiasco of the leaders of Russian tennis did not go unnoticed. Olympic champion and winner of two Grand Slam tournaments Yevgeny Kafelnikov was quite stern when commenting on the situation.

— The top four (according to the WTA rating) of our girls did not pass the second round barrier at the Australian Championships! “Disaster,” Kafelnikov wrote on social networks.

The Russian Tennis Federation urged not to make far-reaching conclusions.

— You can only discuss each one separately. What makes tennis interesting is that it constantly has breakthrough stories. Why did those who stood above lose? “Everyone there has their own story,” Alexey Selivanenko, vice-president of the federation, told the Metaratings.ru portal.

Six years ago everyone failed

The defeat of all seeded Russian women in the first two rounds of the Australian Open is not a very common occurrence. Suffice it to say that the last time this happened was six years ago!

In 2018, nine Russian women played on the courts of Melbourne Park. Four of them were seeded – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15), Elena Vesnina (16), Daria Kasatkina (22) and Ekaterina Makarova (31). But none of them managed to reach the third round. Makarova stumbled in the first round, and Pavlyuchenkova, Vesnina and Kasatkina – in the second.

That tournament, however, was unsuccessful for all Russians. Only one of them managed to reach the third round – Maria Sharapova showed herself better than the rest. But she didn’t go far, losing to German Angelique Kerber with a score of 1:6, 3:6.

Therefore, the situation at JSC-2024 is not unique, but it is still unpleasant. In the current conditions, 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva unexpectedly became the leader of Russia in Melbourne Park. And the tennis players, with whom hopes for the title were pinned, left the tournament very early.