Tennis
Mega sensation from a Russian tennis player at the Australian Open!
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.
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.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
22 January at Australian Open 2026 1/32 final matches were played in the lower group of men’s singles.
Number two in the ATP world rankings and current champion Jannik the Sinner He defeated James Duckworth. He will then compete with Italian player Eliot Spizzirri.
Distinguished Novak Djokovic He coped with Francesco Maestrelli without any problems. Novak’s next opponent will be Botik van de Zandshulp.
The best moments of tennis matches LIVE on Telegram channel Tennis on Sport.ua
Old Marin Cilic and Stan Wawrinka also advanced to the third round by knocking out Denis Shapovalov and Arthur Hea respectively.
Hubert Hurkacz’s loss to Ethan Quinn was quite unexpected and came in three sets.
Among Thursday’s top 10 players, Lorenzo Musetti (beat Lorenzo Sonego), Ben Shelton (beat Dane Sweeney) and Taylor Fritz (beat Vit Koprzyva) won their second-round matches on Thursday.
On the 21st of the month, the 1/32 upper group final took place in Melbourne, and as a result, the star Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz took one step forward.
Australian Open 2026. 1/16 last pair
topnet
Carlos Alcaraz [1] – Corentin Moutet [32]
Tommy Paul [19] – Alejandro Davidovic Fokina [14]
Alexander Bublik [10] – Thomas Martin Etcheverry
Francis Tiafoe [29] – Alex de Minaur [6]
Alexander Zverev [3] – Cameron Norrie [26]
Francisco Cherundolo [18] – Andrey Rublev [13]
Daniil Medvedev [11] – Fabian Marozan
Lerner Tien [25] – Nuno Borges
bottom of the network
Lorenzo Musetti [5] – Tomas Machac
Stan Wawrinka [WC] – Taylor Fritz [9]
Yakub Menshik [16] – Ethan Quinn
Botik van de Zandshulp – Novak Djokovic [4]
Ben Shelton [8] – Valentin Vachereau [30]
Marin Cilic Casper Ruud [12]
Karen Khachanov [15] – Luciano Darderi [22]
Eliot Spizziri – Jannik the Sinner [2]
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
37-year-old Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic (ATP 70) and a 40-year-old Swiss Stan Wawrinka Reached the 1/16 final at the 2026 Australian Open.
Cilic defeated 21st seed Denis Shapovalov (Canada, ATP 23) in three sets in 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Marin started the Australian Open with a win over Daniel Altmaier. His next opponent will be Casper Ruud, who is ranked 13th in the ATP rankings.
Cilic achieved his 599th career win at the ATP level, equaling Goran Ivanisevic for the most wins by a Croatian tennis player in the Open era.
Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final
Denis Shapovalov (Canada) [21] – Marin Cilic (Croatia) – 4:6, 3:6, 2:6
Wawrinka, who is in the final season of his career, won in 4 hours and 33 minutes in a five-set thriller against Arthur Gea (France, ATP 198) in the second round of the Aus Open. This fight is the longest fight in slam so far.
This match marked the 49th five-setter match of Stan’s career in Grand Slam tournaments; He surpassed Roger Federer (48) and became the sole owner of the Open Era record in this indicator.
Since the introduction of the 128-player draw across the four Grand Slams in 1987, Wawrinka became the oldest player to achieve multiple wins at a single major, at 40 years and 296 days.
Stan started AO-2026 with a victory over Laszlo Gyore. His next opponent will be world number 9 Taylor Fritz.
Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final
Arthur Hea (France) [Q] – Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) [WC] – 6:4, 3:6, 6:3, 5:7, 6:7 (3:10)
Besides Cilic and Wawrinka, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic from Serbia also qualified for the 1/16 final at the Aus Open on January 22. After the end of the match day, Novak published a post in his story with the match result and Marin and Stan’s results and signed:
“There is no coup without the old man” translated from Serbian means: “There is no coup without the old man.”
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
Swiss tennis player Belinda Bencic (WTA 10) was sensationally eliminated from the 2026 Australian Open.
In the second round, Switzerland was defeated by the Czech Republic representative in three sets. Nikola Bartunkova (WTA 126) in 2 hours 13 minutes.
Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final
Nikola Bartunkova (Czech Republic) – Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) [10] – 6:3, 0:6, 6:4
Bartunkova and Bencic played each other for the first time.
Belinda lost her first match of 2026. She started the season in the United Cup, where she defeated Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini, among others.
19-year-old Nicola started the Aus Open with the qualifiers. In the first round of the main draw, Bartunkova will compete with Elise Merets after eliminating Daria Kasatkina.
For the first time in her career, Bartunkova beat a tennis player in the top 10 of the WTA rankings. This was also the first defeat of a tennis player ranked in the top 10 at the Australian Open.
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has worked in print and online. I have authored articles for a sports website and have covered sports news for over 6 years.
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