Bia Haddad takes another turn and falls in her debut at the Australian Open

On Saturday night, Bia Haddad Maia came very close to her first victory of the season. But, against Kazakh Yulia Putintseva (94th in the world), number 1 in Brazil and 61st in the rankings, who won the decisive set by 3/1, lost by 3/6, 7/5 and 6/3, in a match that lasted 2h53m.

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The debut of Brazil's number 1 made Melbourne's cramped Court 6 quickly full. But, despite the shouts of 'olê, olê, hello, Bia, Bia', the 29-year-old Brazilian suffered another setback in 2026. On Sunday, the São Paulo native had lost to Victoria Mboko, 19 years old and 17th in the world, in the first round of the WTA 500 in Adelaide, also in Australia.

With much more powerful blows than her opponent, Bia Haddad (who had reached the third round in Melbourne in the last two years) sometimes showed cold blood to try (and hit) swing-volley and even serve and volley. The Kazakh tennis player, in turn, a former top 20 player, tried, as far as possible, vary, break the rival's rhythm, mainly by calling the Brazilian to the net, with short balls.

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After eliminating Bia Haddad, Kazakh could face seed

After deleting the Brazilian, Putintseva faces the winner of the game between the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk (20th seed) and the French Elsa Jacquemot.

Paolini advances

In the first game on center court, Rod Laver, in this edition, the seventh favorite passed comfortably. By 6/1 and 6/2, Italian Jasmine Paolini defeated Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The Italian tennis player's next rival comes from the confrontation between Russian Veronika Erjavec and Polish Magdalena Frech.

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