Translated material
Record bet
Federer and Sharapova have a chance for unprecedented prize money
On Tuesday night, the last of the Grand Slam tournaments, the US Open, started in New York, where $13,137,000 in prize money will be awarded. This amount will be divided equally between the participants in the men's and women's competitions, and each of the winners in singles will be able to get rich by 1 million 400 thousand dollars.There are also six tennis players in the bracket for whom the current tournament offers a chance to earn much larger prize money than is provided for by the tournament regulations. Among these lucky ones are the Swiss Roger Federer, the Americans James Blake, Andy Roddick, our Maria Sharapova, the Serbian Jelena Jankovic and Patty Schneider from Switzerland. However, it is not entirely accurate to call them lucky, since they earned their right to bonuses through military labor on American courts.
According to the tradition of recent years, the summer series of tournaments overseas is conditionally united into the US Open series, in which additional standings are held based on the results of six men's and five women's competitions. You must earn qualifying points in at least two tournaments, and the top three winners each for men and women are entitled to additional prize money. This year this incentive looks even more attractive. If previously bonuses were awarded only to those who reached the quarterfinals and higher in New York, now, even if they lose in the first round, each of these six will receive a certain amount. Naturally, the largest in each round will be for the winners of the US Open series, Federer and Sharapova.
For these two tennis players there is a unique chance to receive a record prize money in the history of tennis. Federer and Sharapova, if they win the trophy, are provided with a bonus of $1 million, in other words, each of them will be able to get rich in New York by $2 million 400 thousand. Today the record belongs to the recently retired Belgian Kim Clijsters, who in a similar situation managed in 2005, collect 2 million 200 thousand dollars. This amount is a record not only in tennis, but also in world women's sports.
Federer, for whom any new incentive increases motivation, has already taken the first step in the tournament bracket, easily defeating the little-known American Scoville Jenkins - 6:3, 6:2, 6:4. Both Russians who played on the first day of the tournament handled their first opponents just as confidently. Nikolai Davydenko, who is trying to be less in public after a bookmaking scandal, defeated the American Jesse Levine - 6:4, 6:0, 6:1, and Igor Andreev defeated the much more famous US representative Robert Kendrick - 7:6 (7:4), 6:4, 6:3.
If our men are represented in the main draw by eight players, then 18 Russians will start in the women's tournament. Naturally, in this situation it is difficult to avoid play-offs. Thus, Alina Zhidkova, who made it through the qualifications, was forced to lose to Vera Zvonareva with a score that was surprising even for women’s tennis: 0:6, 7:6 (7:5), 0:6. In the second round, Zvonareva will again have to play with compatriot Elena Likhovtseva, who started in New York with a victory over American Lauren Albanese - 6:0, 6:2. Our second loss at the tournament was Olga Puchkova, who lost to Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova - 3:6, 4:6.
The rest of the Russians moved on. Another qualifier, Ekaterina Makarova, beat German Julia Schruff - 6:1, 0:6, 6:2. Dinara Safina had no problems with Colombian Catalina Costano - 6:2, 6:3, Vera Dushevina did not give a chance to Italian Mara Santangelo - 6:2, 6:4. Also, Ekaterina Bychkova did not lose a single set to Chinese Zhi Yan (6:2, 6:4), and Elena Dementieva did not lose a single set to Frenchwoman Stephanie Aloro (6:3, 6:4).