We have officially reached to the point where Russian players start eliminating each other at Australian Open.

First Elena Vesnina was crashed out of the event by fellow Russian Maria Sharapova 3-6, 0-6. The winner of the next all-Russian match was Maria Kirilenko. She successfully eliminated sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze.

More Russian duels are on the way. Maria Sharapova faces another tough Russian on the fourth round namely eleventh-seeded Elena Dementieva. They have encountered on nine different occasions, with seven victories for Sharapova. In another all-Russian duel, big hitting Nadia Petrova meets Ekaterina Makarova.

On the men’s side, Nikolay Davydenko will play with Mikhail Youzhny.

Sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia was upset in three sets by compatriot Maria Kirilenko, seeded 27. Both players have Martina Hingis-style of play. They play very smart tennis. There were lots of question marks about Chakvetadze’s physical and psychological preparedness after experiencing a house robbery during the off-season. In the third set, it seemed to me that Anna hardly held back her tears. Her father/coach Djambuli hasn’t even waited for the match to end to leave the stadium. Not a very smart move! Read more »

Russian Players Results, Second Round Singles

(2) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) 7-6(0) 6-2

(6) Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) d. (Q) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) 6-3 6-4

(14) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. Anne Kremer (LUX) 7-5 7-5(27)

Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. Akiko Morigami (JPN) 61 61

Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d. Yvonne Meusburger (AUT) 6-3 6-1

The Russian men were not as successful as the Russian women.

(32) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) lost to Sam Querrey (USA) 6-7 (5-7), 64, 46, 26

Marat Safin (RUS) lost to Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 46, 46, 62, 63, 26.