How are our tennis players doing at the beginning of the season? Noskova is waiting for the former world number one and Muchová is rising again!

The start of the tennis season traditionally takes place in Australia and neighbouring New Zealand and this year is no different. The Australian tournament hosts the million dollar Adelaide WTA500 category and in New Zealand the WTA250 is played in Auckland.

Adelaide

In Adelaide, the Czech Republic was represented three times in the opening round. The ranking of the ever falling Pliskova has currently dropped to 31st place and it doesn’t seem that the current bad form will turn for the better. In the opening round she was no match for Ostapenko, whom she lost to in an absolutely smooth 6: 1 and 6: 3.

The second Czech participant of the tournament is Markéta Vondrousová and here it is much happier. At the end of last year, she put up some interesting performances and she has carried them over into this year.

She entered the tournament as the 92nd player in the WTA rankings and yet she was the favourite in the eyes of the bookmakers against Alexandrova, who is 73 places higher. And as it turned out, the guesses were correct. Vondrousova managed to turn the match around and after 6::4, 3::6 and 2::6 sets she could enjoy the progress.

A much higher ranked opponent, namely the Estonian Kanepi, awaited in the eighth round. However, Markéta almost drove her off the court and after a clear 6::0 and 6::4 win, she is looking forward to her participation in the quarterfinals, where she will face the number two seed, Sabalenka from Belarus.

The last of the three participants is a young junior, the newly 18-year-old Linda Noskova. She has already had to fight her way through three Russian opponents. First, after a great battle in the qualification, she took on Anna Kalinskaya, which was decided in the shortened third set, and then Anastasia Potapova.

Here, on the other hand, it was clearly in Linda’s favour 3::6 and 2::6. In the first round of the main draw, even the world number eight did not stop the Czech! Daria Kasatkina said goodbye to the tournament after losing 3::6, 7::6 and 3::6.

Claire Liu of the USA was the next to try to stop the Czech comet. She fell 2::6 and 2::6. Noskova is now in the quarter-finals where she will face former world number one Victoria Azarenka!

Both Czechs will face high-ranked and well-playing opponents, both of them from Belarus. Vondrousova will face Sabalenka on Friday, January 6 at 1:30 pm our time. The Noskova/Azarenka duel is scheduled for 5:00.

Auckland

Here, four of our players have entered the main draw, but only one remains in contention. Both Fruhvit sisters have travelled to New Zealand for tennis purposes. Linda, however, was no match for her ranked neighbour in the opening round. Emma Raducanu, 3 years older, managed to turn the match around and win 4::6, 6::4 and 6::2.

The younger of the sisters, Brenda, fell in a clear decision to Leylah Fernandez in both sets by the same score of 1::6. She managed to win the first set against Austria’s Grabher, but from then on it wasn’t going well at all and the result was only 5::7, 6::1 and 6::2.

Karolína Muchová is the only player who will go through the spider. She was leading in the first set against Wang 3::5 when her opponent gave up. The eighth round was played as usual and Karolína managed to win the match against Ruseova smoothly 6: 4 and 6: 1.

Muchova currently jumps up the rankings after each success. On the live ranking she is already somewhere around 130th place, while she entered the tournament as the 151st player in the world. Muchova will play her quarter-final against Spain’s Masar, where she will be the clear favourite. The match will start on Friday, January 6 at 3:00 pm.

Source: WTA, Twitter