Translated material
Serbian week
Ivanovic and Djokovic distinguished themselves in North America
The victory of Serbian tennis players Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic ended major hard-court tournaments in North America, part of the so-called US Open Series. Based on the results of the series, the top three players in men and women are paid increased prize money at the US Open, which starts at the end of August. Ivanovich excelled at the second category BTA competition with a prize fund of 600 thousand dollars in Los Angeles. In the final, the Serbian defeated our Nadezhda Petrova - 7:5, 6:4. Djokovic became the best at the Masters in Montreal, Canada. Moreover, on the way to the final, Novak beat the third, second and first rackets of the world. In this unique super series, the Serbian defeated the American Andy Roddick - 7:6 (7:4), 6:4, the Spaniard Rafael Nadal -7:5, 6:3 and the Swiss Roger Federer - 7:6 (7:2) . 2:6, 7:6 (7:2).The women's tournament in Los Angeles was initially held under the sign of the total superiority of the Russians. A quartet of our compatriots - Petrova, Maria Sharapova, Maria Kirilenko and Elena Dementieva - made it to the quarterfinals. However, then Kirilenko was defeated by Ivanovich (4:6, 4:6), followed by the inevitable loss in the Russian Sharapov-Dementiev derby - the advantage was on Maria’s side (6:3, 6:4). Her semi-final with Petrova, alas, did not take place. After doing a few movements during the pre-match warm-up, Sharapova felt pain in her knee and was forced to withdraw. The two-time Grand Slam winner has taken a break and will now appear on court only during the US Open. In the other semi-final, fellow countrymen also competed. Ivanovich beat Jelena Jankovic - 4:6, 6:3, 7:5.
In the title match, Petrova, who had received an unplanned day of rest the day before, seemed to have looked fresher, but the Serbian did not seem at all tired. The meeting was an even fight, Ivanovich acted more accurately and responsibly in the decisive rallies. “My opponent is in great shape now,” Petrova said. - In my opinion, she has recently lost extra weight, she has a very high-quality forehand. It’s clear that Ana works hard in training under the guidance of a competent specialist.” Note that in the semi-finals, Ivanovich managed to escape from a 1:4 score in the third game - an excellent characteristic of her fighting qualities.
The Serbian rose to her highest fourth place in the world classification. The title in Los Angeles is already her second this season (she won on clay in Berlin in the spring) and the fourth in her professional career. In the ranking, Ivanovich swapped places with our Svetlana Kuznetsova. Petrova remained in ninth position. The Muscovite competed in the final for the third time in a year, but was only able to achieve success on the indoor synthetic courts of Paris and lost to the Frenchwoman Tatyana Golovin on the green clay of Amelia Island (USA) and is now in America.
Djokovic's achievement seems even more significant than the triumph of his compatriot. The Serb repeated the sports feat of the German Boris Becker 13 years ago, who also defeated three of the strongest tennis players on the planet during one tournament. In 1994, in Stockholm, Becker suffered from his fellow countryman Michael Stich, American Pete Sampras and Croatian Goran Ivanisevic. The only difference is that the then ranking leader Sampras was beaten in the semi-finals, and in the fight for the title Becker fought with the second racket of the world Ivanisevic.
In Montreal, the ending of the first game of the final turned out to be fantastic. Federer led 6:5 and served for the set, achieving a killer 40:0 advantage in this game. The Swiss then failed to convert a total of six set points, five of them due to his own unforced errors. During the tiebreaker, Djokovic had a special inspiration, and this happened again at the end of the match. Although in the second game Roger completely outplayed Novak.
The Serb took his second title at the Masters this season, and again did it overseas (he celebrated success in Miami in March). In 2007, Djokovic won four tournaments (plus Estoril and Adelaide). In the new ATP rankings, the Belgrade native is in the top 3 for the first time, displacing Roddick from the top three.