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Australian Open 1/8 final next night”>Alona Ostapenko Photo: WTA
Latvia’s first women’s tennis racket Alona Ostapenko will meet with American Alison Rice in the second round of the Australian Open Championship on Wednesday. The match in the 3rd card will be the second and will start at around 4 pm Latvian time.
Ostapenko ranks 27th in the WTA rankings and ranks 26th in the first Grand Slam of the season, while her opponent ranks 46th in the WTA rankings. Both tennis players have met once before, in 2019 the Latvian athlete won the second round of the US Open in two sets with 6-4, 6-3. In the first round, Ostapenko defeated Anna Karolina Šmīdlova with 6-7 (7: 9), 6-4, 6-1, while Rīske prevailed with Donna Vekich (WTA 79) with 6-2, 6-2.
Ostapenko started the season at the WTA 500 in Sydney, where the top 10 players, Paul Paul Bados, were recognized in the first round. Rice in the WTA 250 series in Melbourne lost in the first game, but later lost in the final in Adelaide. Last season, Ostapenko won 33 of the 51 matches, while Rice won 16 games in 32 games.
Ostapenko is playing for the seventh time in her career at the Australian Open, but has made it to the third round twice in the past six times. Rice is participating in the 12th time of the Australian Open, reaching its highest result in 2020, when she lost to Ashley Barthy in three sets in the eighth final. Ostapenko has won four WTA titles in her career, while her opponent has three WTA titles.
The winner will meet in the third round with Czech Barbor Krejchikov (WTA 4) or Chinese tennis player Van Xiyui (WTA 139). It has already been reported that the second racket of Latvia, Anastasia Sevastova, conceded to Magda Linete from Poland in the first round with 4-6, 5-7. The Australian Open started on January 17 and will run until January 30
