Brazilian tennis player Bia Haddad Maia lost the match that would qualify her in the round of 16 of the Australian Open singles championship this Saturday (18), in the city of Melbourne. Bia faced Russian Veronika Kudermetova in a game that lasted almost two hours.
At first, Bia even managed to gain an advantage and take advantage of her opponent’s mistakes, but soon Kudermetova, with an aggressive game, turned the score around. The partials were 6/4 and 6/2. Bia is number 1 in Brazil and 17th in the world, while the Russian woman occupies 75th position in the global ranking.
Kudermetova had a more risky attitude in the game, exchanging breaks of serve with the Brazilian. The two also made unforced errors, 31 for the Russian and 20 for Bia, who maintained the advantage until the final stretch of the set.
The second set was more balanced, but the Russian made fewer mistakes, putting even more pressure on Bia. With the elimination, Bia equals her 2024 campaign at the Australian Open, in which she also fell in the third round.
In her debut game in the championship, after beating Argentine Julia Riera, 146th in the world, the 28-year-old from São Paulo admitted a poor performance. In the second round, on Thursday (16), she had a much more solid performance against Russian Erika Andreeva, number 86, and easily advanced to the third round, where she was defeated by Kudermetova.
