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Ukraine’s Kichenok loses Grand Slam Doubles Final to No. 2 seed

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Ukraine’s Kichenok loses Grand Slam Doubles Final to No. 2 seed
Lyudmyla Kichenok (L) of Ukraine and Jelena Ostapenko (R) of Latvia speak after losing their Women’s Doubles Finals match against Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Elise Mertens of Belgium during the 2024 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 28, 2024. (Andy Cheung/Getty Images)

Ukrainian tennis player Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko lost their Australian Open doubles final to the second seeds with a 1-6 5-7 score.

The winners – Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei and Belgium's Elise Mertens – achieved their second Grand Slam doubles victory after the 2021 Wimbledon.

Su-Wei, who turned 38 this month, has become Grand Slam's second oldest woman to claim a doubles title, after Lisa Raymond, who was eight days older when she won the 2011 US Open.  

And for the first time in 16 years, a Ukrainian tennis player reached the Grand Slam women's doubles championship match.

The 31-year-old Dnipro-born tennis player, currently ranked No. 27 in the world doubles, played her first Australian Open final during her tennis career.

In 2023, Kichenok won the mixed doubles title with Croatia's Mate Pavic at Wimbledon. She is the third Ukrainian female tennis player to reach the Grand Slam doubles final.

Her 26-year-old Latvian doubles partner Ostapenko, with a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world, won a Roland Garros 2017 champion in singles.

Ukrainian tennis players set several national records during the Australian Open, with 23-year-old qualifier Dayana Yastremska making her way to her debut Grand Slam semi-final – becoming the first Ukrainian woman ever to reach the Australian Open singles semifinals and the first player to go through qualifiers to reach such a result.

Yastremska lost the semi-final 6-4 6-4 to China's Zheng Qinwen, who then lost to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka playing as a "neutral" player. Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk lost to America's 19-year-old rising star Coco Gauff with two tie breaks in the quarterfinals.

Ukrainian tennis player Yastremska knocked out of Australian Open in semi-final
Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska lost in straight sets to China’s Zheng Qinwen in the semi-final of the Australian Open in Melbourne, Suspilne Sport reported on Jan. 25. Yastremska, 23, reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career. With her earlier qua…
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Asami Terajima

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Asami Terajima is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent covering Ukrainian military issues, front-line developments, and politics. She is the co-author of the weekly War Notes newsletter. She previously worked as a business reporter for the Kyiv Post focusing on international trade, infrastructure, investment, and energy. Originally from Japan, Terajima moved to Ukraine during childhood and completed her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in the U.S. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2023 (Local Reporter category) and the George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany's Axel Springer Prize 2023. She was also featured in the Media Development Foundation’s “25 under 25: Young and Bold” 2023 list of emerging media makers in Ukraine.

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