Brazilian tennis player Beatriz Haddad advanced to the third round of the Australian Open, in Melbourne, and came closer to reaching the round of 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time. Number 17 in the world, the 28-year-old from São Paulo ran over the Russian Erika Andeeva, 20, with a double 6/2. After the elimination of Rio’s João Fonseca this morning, Bia is now the country’s only representative in the singles competition. The Brazilian’s next opponent will be Russian Veronika Kudermetova (75th in the ranking). The match is scheduled for Saturday (18), at a time yet to be defined by the organizers.
First, however, Bia Haddad returns to the court at 1:40 am (Brasília time) this Friday (17) for her doubles debut, playing alongside German Laura Siegemund. They arrive on a high note after winning runner-up in the doubles at the WTA 550 in Adelaide last week. Bia and Laura will face in the first round the pair of Dutch Suzan Lamens and American Quinn Gleason.
An hour and 21 minutes is all Beatriz Haddad Maia needed to breeze through to the third round in straight sets, 6-2 6-3😍#AO2025 pic.twitter.com/SnVkdygpaP
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 16, 2025
Also in the early hours of Friday (17th), Marcelo Melo from Minas Gerais will make his debut in the mixed doubles, alongside Taiwanese Chan Hao-Ching, against the British John-Patrick Smith and Kimberly Birrel. The confrontation is scheduled to start at 1:40 am.
Successful debuts
The new partnership between São Paulo native Luisa Stefani and North American Peyton Stearns came out on top in their debut against the duo between Rio de Janeiro native Ingrid Martins and Romanian Irina Begu. Luisa and Peyton won by 2 sets to 0, with partials of 6/2 and 7/6 (7-3), after 1h27min of confrontation. The next opposing pair will be that of the Chinese Shuai Zhang with the French Kristina Mladenovic (seeded 9 ). The duel is expected to take place in the early hours of Saturday (18).
The day was also a celebration for the gaucho Orlando Luz26 years old, who achieved the first victory of his career in a Grand Slam. In partnership with Frenchman Gregoire Jacq, Luz overpowered the Indian duo of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N. Vijay Prashanth with a double 6/2 and 6/2. In the second round – still without a set date and time – Orlando and Gregoire will face the pair of Polish Jan Zielinski and Belgian Sander Gille (seed 13).
“Very happy with the victory, a great moment in my career, winning my first match in a Grand Slam, my first time at the Australian Open, having this victory on my debut. We are ready for more challenges. We will face a very strong pair, it’s about having a good mind to continue this good level. Really very happy, I wanted to thank the people who are supporting Brazil, we feel the support here from afar, a lot of people stayed up to follow Fonseca, Luisa, Bia, Ingrid, Zormann, the Matos. Now let’s go with everything to the next one”, said Orlando Luz, after the victory.
Other results
Brazil said goodbye to the men’s doubles competition. Marcelo Melo’s partnership with Rafael Matos from Rio Grande do Sul was eliminated in the debut after losing to the partner of Frenchman Édouard Roger-Vasselin with Hugo Nys from Mogagasco (seeded 15), by 2 sets to 1 (splits of 6/3, 4 /6 and 6/2).
The duo of Marcelo Zormann from São Paulo and Fernando Romboli from Rio had the game in hand, but suffered a comeback defeat in their debut against the Germans Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner, by 2 sets to 1, with partials of 3/6, 7/ 5 and 7/6 (10-6).
