site.btaTomova Suffers Defeat at Australian Open, No Bulgarians in Grand Slam Second Round for First Time since 2021

Bulgaria's highest ranked female tennis player, Viktoriya Tomova lost 1-6 3-6 to world No. 10 Daria Kasatkina in the first round of Australian Open on Tuesday. The Bulgarian, currently No. 58 in the world, will lose 35 ranking points as she reached the competition's second round for the first time last year. 

Tomova started both sets well, winning flawlessly her serve game at 0-0 in the first and securing a break advantage in the second, but her opponent scored 22 winners and managed to take control over the match closing it in a little bit over an hour.

Thus, Bulgaria will have no representatives in a second round of a Grand Slam singles tournament for the first time since May 2021 as Grigor Dimitrov left the men's draw after an injury in his first round match against Italian Francesco Passaro on Monday.

At Roland Garros 2021 Dimitrov suffered another injury in the first round. He failed to qualify for a Grand Slam second round only once since then, at Wimbledon 2022, but then Tomova represented the country in the best of 64 at the competition. 

However, while there will be no Bulgarians in the men's and women's singles tournaments, Tomova will take part in the doubles in a team with Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova (singles ranking: world No. 49). They will meet Chinese team Xinyu Jiang and Yafan Wang. Alexandar Vasilev will play in the boys' competition while Rositsa Dencheva and Elizara Yaneva will take part in the girls' draw.