Puranjay Dixit
Elina Avanesyan joined the long list of budding Russian WTA stars making the tennis fraternity sit up and take notice. She blazed past Maria Sakkari in the second round of the 2024 Australian Open. Now, the youngster is within touching distance of the $1 million milestone in career prize money.
Sakkari’s Grand Slam struggles continued as she was ousted in the second round by Avanesyan. Before defeating the Greek star, the 21-year-old beat Zhuoxuan Bai to kickstart her maiden Australian Open campaign. She will also begin her women’s doubles run with Belarusian Iryna Shymanovich on Thursday.
After reaching the third round in the women’s singles category, Avanesyan will take home at least A$180,000 ($121,770). Meanwhile, a first-round appearance in doubles is worth $24,550 (A$36,000), divided equally between both players. Hence, as it stands, Avanesyan will add a minimum of $134,045 to her existing prize money kitty of $809,169.
However, to breach the $1 million mark, she needs to win her upcoming singles and doubles ties. Doing so will bump her assured earnings up to $172,508 for singles and $18,072 in doubles ($36,144 for the team). Reaching the fourth round in singles and the second round in doubles guarantees her a sum of $191,210, enabling her career prize money winnings to cross the million-dollar milestone.
This would be a huge feat for someone who made her WTA Tour debut only in April 2022. Avanesyan broke into the top 100 with some good performances in 2023. She reached the fourth round of the French Open and second round of the US Open for a career-best World No.62 rank, before ending the season as No.75.
Avanesyan, World No.324 in doubles, resides in Spain, training under María José Llorca Pons. Currently World No. 74 in singles, she is sponsored by Head and Adidas.
2023 proved to be a breakthrough season for Elina Avanesyan. En route to some great results, she beat top names like Belinda Bencic, Alize Cornet, and Daria Kasatkina. She earned the biggest victory of her nascent career after defeating World No.8 Maria Sakkari in the second round of the 2024 Australian Open.
Avanesyan will now face World No.37 Marta Kostyuk. The Ukrainian was embroiled in controversy recently after she refused to play Mirra Andreeva in an exhibition match in December 2023. She did not agree to play against the Russian because of their ongoing war against Ukraine.
However, Kostyuk will have to play Andreeva’s compatriot Avanesyan in a match that could see tempers flare. Regardless, the latter will be gunning for a victory to get one step closer to the $1 million prize money benchmark. The third round clash will take place on Friday, January 19, at 2:00 p.m. local time (10:00 pm on Wednesday, January 18 ET). ESPN will air this match.
On the doubles side, Avanesyan will take to the court with Iryna Shymanovich on Thursday, January 18, not before 7:00 p.m. local time (3:00 a.m. ET).
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