Putintseva defeats Jacquemot, advances to third round at AO 2026

Kazakhstani tennis player Yulia Putintseva (World No. 94) advanced to the third round of the Australian Open 2026. After defeating world No. 59, Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, she beat world No. 60, France’s Elsa Jacquemot, 6-1, 6-2 in 73 minutes.

The 22-year-old French player appeared not to have fully recovered from her exhausting first-round match against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, which featured three tiebreaks. By contrast, Putintseva made few errors and her disciplined patterns of play and powerful shots repeatedly made Jacquemot struggle.

The Kazakhstani player secured two breaks in the first set and three in the second. In the opening set, Jacquemot managed to avoid a 0-6 defeat, while in the second, she broke Putintseva’s serve.

At 5-1, the Kazakhstani athlete asked for a timeout as the laces tore in an intense game. Following the change of important gear, Kazakhstan’s second-ranked player lost one game but confidently served for the match, securing the victory from the first match point — 6-1, 6-2.

Putintseva will face Turkey’s Zeynep Sönmez (112), who has already won five matches at the tournament. After successfully qualifying, she defeated World’s 11 Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova and Hungary’s Anna Bondár.

The Australian Open is an annual hard-court Grand Slam tournament and the first of the four majors in the calendar year.