Australia (Commonwealth) _ Arina Rodionova, the highest-ranked tennis player in Australia, made tennis history by being the oldest female player to debut in the world’s top 100.
At the Thailand Open in Hua Hin on Thursday night, the 34-year-old veteran blazed to this welcome new benchmark as she came back to beat Chinese prodigy Bai Zhuoxuan 3-6 6-1 6-0 to secure a quarterfinal position.
With the victory, she will guarantee that, at the age of 34 years and 52 days, she will break into the top 100 when the WTA rankings are revealed on Monday, continuing the indignation-fueled Melburnian’s incredible late-career ascent.
It took her twenty years to get past the barrier in her professional career, having started in Russia. Since Rodionova is the top-ranked female player in the country, she felt that the governing body was taking personal offense at the recent Australian Open, when she was forced to play qualifications and refused a wildcard by Tennis Australia.
“My only regret from today is that I gave Tennis Australia something to be happy about,” Rodionova boldly said following her Melbourne first-round qualifying defeat. She remarked, “I think they are really happy with my result today, and that’s what upsets me.”
However, in her first match since then, the player of Russian descent, who recovered from a serious wrist injury to win seven lower-level ITF singles titles in 2023, has provided the authorities even more reason to consider her as the only Australian woman to rank in the top 100.
Her race in Hua Hin will move her up to No. 96 when the new rankings are released; she is now rated 101. For a player that was only rated 302nd at the beginning of 2023, this is an incredible climb. Rodionova might get to the edge of the top-70 if she were to win the competition.
Rodionova has already secured her place in just her second career tour-level quarterfinal after storming back to win the previous 11 games in a row to smash 21-year-old Bai. She was in Nanchang, China, seven years ago the last time she made it to the last eight.
Rodionova has already defeated two Chinese players during her run; on Friday, she will face her third opponent, second seed Zhu Lin. The 45th world rank Zhu’s 6-2 6-2 victory against Linda Fruhvirtova guaranteed that there would be three Chinese players in the quarterfinals.
After a two-hour and forty-seven-minute battle, American Katie Volynets defeated German No. 4 seed and former Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria 5-7 6-2 6-2 to go to her second WTA quarterfinal. Rodionova will have a full day on Friday as she competes in the doubles semifinal with her Chinese partner Yuan Yue, whom she defeated in the singles first round.
Arina Ivanovna Rodionova is Russian born Australian tennis player who was born in Russia on December 15, 1989. She peaked at No. 101 in the world rankings for the first time in her career on January 29, 2024. Her best doubles ranking at the time was No. 41 on July 27, 2015.
On the ITF Women’s Circuit, Rodionova has won 15 singles and 42 doubles championships in addition to one WTA and one WTA 125 doubles title. She and Eugeniya Rodina won the Australian Open girls’ doubles championship in 2007.
The two sisters have sporadically competed in doubles events together with varying degrees of success. The older sister, Anastasia, is also a professional tennis player. The team’s greatest accomplishment was at the 2010 Malaysian Open, when they advanced to the championship match but were defeated in a super tie-break by Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie.
In 2004, Rodionova made her professional debut at an ITF Women’s Circuit competition held in Protvino, Russia. She won a title in Minsk in 2005, and the following year she won another one in Moscow. She placed second in an ITF event held in Istanbul in 2008. Rodionova won eight ITF doubles championships and two singles titles in 2009.
Rodionova participated in six World Team Tennis seasons. The Murphy Jensen-coached Washington Kastles WTT Team selected Rodionova in the 2011 draft. The Kastles defeated the Boston Lobsters to earn the #1 seed in the Conference Championships after going unbeaten in 14 games during the regular season. The Kastles finished the first-ever 16-0 season in the 36-year history of the WTT when they defeated the St. Louis Aces in the WTT Finals to win the 2011 WTT Championship for the second time in the league’s four-year history.
“Female Rookie of the Year” was given to Rodionova right before the Championship match, and she went on to win MVP in the WTT Finals. From 2012 to 2015, she kept playing with the Kastles. In 2019, she spent a season with the San Diego Aviators. She would be joining the Washington Kastles for the 2020 WTT season, it was revealed.
Ivan and Natalia Rodionova are the parents of Arina Rodionova, who resides in Melbourne with her sister Anastasia.I started playing tennis when I was just almost three years old, and she started when she was three. And why specifically tennis? My sister is a professional tennis player, so I had little option but to follow her career path, but ultimately I believe it’s worked out nicely. In addition to Justine Henin and Bob and Mike Bryan, Rodionova names Martina Hingis as her role model.She likes to play forehand and on hard courts.
In January 2014, Rodionova obtained Australian citizenship. In December 2015, she tied the knot with Australian football player Ty Vickery. Since 1984, Thailand has hosted the open international badminton event, known as the Thailand Open. 1986, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2021 saw its termination. Thailand Open has been included in the BWF events system from 2018 as one of the seven BWF World Tour Super 500 tournaments
