Svitolina is one step away from her 100th Grand Slam victory: Key figures from the 2025 Australian Open.
The Australian Open 2025 has already opened its main draw doors for tennis enthusiasts, but due to rain, the first day was not very eventful, and the Ukrainian delegation began its program with a slight delay. Unfortunately, Yulia Starodubtseva, despite a close match, lost to the strong Leylah Fernandez (30th seed of the tournament) – 5:7, 4:6.
However, the aim of our article is to examine the representatives of Ukraine through the lens of numbers, which often provide a clear insight.
Thus, in the main draw of the AO, apart from Starodubtseva, who has already exited the tournament, five Ukrainian women will start: Kostyuk, Svitolina, Yastremska, Kalinina, and Snihur.
It is worth noting that this Ukrainian contingent is one of the largest in the tournament's history. There were only two instances when there were more, and that was by just one.
Number of Ukrainians in the AO main draw over the past years:
7 (2024) – 6 (2023) – 5 (2022) – 3 (2021) – 5 (2020) – 4 (2019).
The record representation – seven Ukrainians – was recorded in 2024 and 2016.
A new record for all "Grand Slam" events was set recently, at last year's Wimbledon. At that time, eight Ukrainian women made it to the main draw: six directly and two through qualifying.
It is also worth reminding that in the current season, for the first time in 20 years, no male players qualified for the tournament; Baindl (maiden name – Kozlova) and record-holder Tsurenko have disappeared from the "Grand Slam" radar; Sobolev (each draw seems to be a disaster) and Zavatska, who remained outside the tournament while being the first alternate for a long time, may lament their lack of luck.
Meanwhile, we are closely following Oliynykova, who is steadily progressing towards her goal – qualifying for the Grand Slam zone. In our view, Oleksandra is the main contender to strengthen the "blue-yellow" colors in the professional tour.
For the second consecutive time, and only the second time in the tournament's history, three of our tennis players became seeded during the draw (Kostyuk, Svitolina, Yastremska). In a way, their positions give hope that in terms of individual victories, there could be a surge of positive emotions. Of course, competing with last year’s achievements is hardly possible (Yastremska's semifinal, Kostyuk's quarterfinal, and a total of 13 wins among seven main draw players), but reaching the top three best results is quite realistic.
0As of now, it looks like this:
- 13 (2024)
- 11 (2018)
- 8 (2011)
It is worth noting that last year's haul of 13 victories is the best performance by Ukrainians at majors in history, improved by two steps.
The previous tournament, as is known, set one of the biggest records. This refers to Yastremska's semifinal (let's remind you, she qualified!). She established a new Ukrainian benchmark in Melbourne, which previously was marked at "quarterfinal": Dolgopolov (2011), Svitolina (2018, 2019), and Kostyuk (2024).
1One of the most notable potential records, which, if successful (we believe it will happen soon), will certainly fill all media and social networks related to Ukrainian tennis and Elina Svitolina, is the number of her victories in the "GS" main draw. Before the 2025 Australian Open, she has 98 victories plus one technical.
TOP-UKRAINIANS BY NUMBER OF WINS IN THE MAIN DRAW GRAND SLAM
- Elina Svitolina – 98 (+1)
- Andriy Medvedev – 60 (+3 under the CIS)
- Lesya Tsurenko – 38
- Oleksandr Dolgopolov – 34
- Kateryna Bondarenko – 29
- Olena Bondarenko – 26
- Marta Kostyuk – 25
- Serhiy Stakhovsky – 24
- Diana Yastremska – 18
- Tetiana Perebiynis – 12
- Yulia Vakulenko – 12
2Another interesting but often underappreciated list is that of the number of participations in the main draw Grand Slam, as not only reaching but also staying at this level for a while is an undeniable success in a personal career.
TOP-UKRAINIANS BY NUMBER OF PARTICIPATIONS IN THE MAIN DRAW GRAND SLAM
- Lesya Tsurenko – 45
- Elina Svitolina – 43
- Kateryna Bondarenko – 39
- Serhiy Stakhovsky – 37
- Andriy Medvedev – 33*+1 under the CIS flag
- Oleksandr Dolgopolov – 30
- Olena Bondarenko – 26
- Kateryna Baindl – 25
- Marta Kostyuk – 20
- Diana Yastremska – 20
Lastly, it should be noted that 20 Ukrainian tennis players have won matches at the AO. The leader is Svitolina (25), who has nearly doubled the legendary Medvedev (13). Without jumping ahead, there are grounds to believe that there will be changes in the top three for the number of victories in Melbourne during the current tournament.
Editor-in-Chief – Stanislav Lysak