Today, two Georgian tennis players celebrated victories at Australian Open. Anna Tatishvili and Oksana Kalashnikova spent 3-3 sets on the court but finally, their advantage was not under suspicion.
Because of bad weather, Georgian tennis players could not start participation in "Australian Open". On the next day, they celebrated victories with one minute interval.
Tatishvili is in the 132nd place at ranking. Her first opponent was Polish Urszula Radwańska who was in the 62nd place in August 2009. Now, she is in the 193rd place and she has not won an important match for a long time.
Luckily, Urszula could not win this time too. The match did not start well for Tatishvili. Anna made many mistakes in the first set. A 20-year-old Georgian tennis player lost the first set - 4:6.
Tatishvili the first game of the second set. She won 12 games from 13. Finally, Anna won 4:6, 6:2, 6:0 within an hour and 50 minutes.
Anna used 5 break-points from 16. According to points, she beat her opponent 91:73.
At the second qualifying stage, Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva will be the next opponent of Tatishvil. Koryttseva beat French Laura Thorpe (6:4, 6:2) which an hour and 11 minutes. Koryttseva is in the 147th place at Women's Tennis Association (WTA).
A 25-year-old Koryttseva is playing at Australian Open for the third time. She had the best result in 2008 when she went through the second round of the main draw. Mariya had the peak of her career in 2008 when she was in the 50th place. Tatishvili played against Koryttseva for the first time.
In case of beating Ukrainian tennis player, Anna will play against winner between British Heather Watson (the 149th place, she beat French Kristina Mladenovic 6:3, 6:2) and Ukrainian Lesya Tsurenko (the 157th place, she beat Swiss Stefanie Vögele 6:4, 7:6 (7:3).
Oksana Kalashnikova, the second representative of Georgia, celebrated victory. She won over Russian Ekaterina Bychkova. Bychkova who was 11 places ahead of Georgian tennis player, was in the 66th place at ranking in February 2006.
A 20-year-old Kalashnikova played well against a 25-year-old Russian player. Oksana advanced 6:4, 5:3 but then she got nervous and Bychkova had a chance to equalize the score. She won tie-break 7:2.
Oksana managed to mobilize and won the match 6:4, 6:7 (2:7), 6:2 within 2 hours and 5 minutes.
American Irina Falconi is the next opponent of Oksana. She beat No.20 seed Slovenian Maša Zec Peškirič 6:0, 6:1 within 44 minutes. A 20-year-old Falconi is in the 184th place. American tennis player is playing in Melbourne for the first time and she has never played against Kalashnikova.
If Georgian girl beats American, she will play against winner between Kazakh Zarina Diyas (the 174th place, she beat French Olivia Sanchez 6:4, 6:1) and Italian Anna Floris (the 186th place, she beat French Anaïs Laurendon 6:1, 6:4).
The second round matches will start tomorrow in the morning. Kalashnikova and Falconi will play on the 10th court at 7:30. The match between Tatishvili and Koryttseva will be held on the 15th court.
Georgian tennis players earned 40-40 points. But only Tatishvili will advance at ranking. Kalashnikova managed to win one match last year and she kept her result.
On the official website of Australian Open, an old Georgian flag is put next to Georgian tennis players. This is not the first occasion. This fact is shameful because Georgian sportsmen have been competing under five-cross flag for 6 years.


Dato Manjavidze