| The Belarusians starved Safin out The Russian men's tennis team has already accustomed its fans to the fact that battles in Davis Cup matches are a lot of work for them. And it doesn’t matter at what stage of the tournament this happens - in the opening round of the World Group or in the final. So in the meeting with the debutant of the high society, the team of Belarus, the outcome of the confrontation between the neighbors was decided only in the final, fifth match. Alas, in Minsk the hosts celebrated success. Vladimir Volchkov defeated Mikhail Youzhny - 7:5, 6:2, 6:4. Marat Safin could not help the team on Sunday. Due to enormous fatigue, our captain Shamil Tarpishchev released him from the key match, and today there is no worthy replacement for the leader of Russian tennis.
Youzhny would have had a much easier time if his opponent had not been Wimbledon 2000 semi-finalist Vladimir Volchkov, but 32-year-old Alexander Shvets or the very young Andrei Korotchenya, who turned 15 in January. Volchkov suffered a painful injury in his first fight on Friday against Igor Andreev, and few expected that he would recover so quickly and take the court again. Yesterday morning there was even a rumor about a completely “raw” Korotcheny entering the match with Yuzhny; in fact, this information turned out to be a skillfully launched “duck”.
It was not without reason that the Belarusians chose a very fast coating. When the ball bounces rapidly, Volchkov feels comfortable, he has an excellent serve, and it’s not without reason that he achieved the best achievement of his career on the grass, where the ability to hit as sharply as possible comes to the fore. Andreev, who celebrated his debut at the level of the senior national team, did not take a single game on Volchkov’s serve in four incomplete sets. Twice, in a fairly monotonous game, the opponents came to a tiebreaker. The first time the Russian was let down by a double fault at the most inopportune moment, but in the next set, during a shortened game, the host of the court had a glitch.
It is possible that at this pace the game could last almost five hours. It ended tragically for Belarusians. With the score 2:1 in games and 4:3 in the next set, Volchkov twisted his leg during a reception. The pain in his right ankle was so severe that Vladimir screamed loudly. A medical team immediately rushed to his side to provide assistance. Powerful freezing, taping - nothing helped. During a regular ATP tournament, where only personal money and ranking points are at stake, few would dare to continue fighting with such an injury. But this is the Davis Cup, a team competition! Volchkov, gritting his teeth, returned to the game, lost the game and realized: in such a state it was useless to torture himself.
If Safin had defeated Maxim Mirny, with the score 2:0, the match could have completely lost its intrigue. The Russians are clearly stronger in doubles, and any of our tennis players, including Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko, due to their high class, should not have problems in a duel with Shvets. Friday's second fight was reminiscent of Safin's grueling and endless battles in Melbourne. The tall Belarusian is one of the ten best servers on the ATP tour, and Marat, when in good shape, is ready to upset his opponent with two or three dozen aces per match. Here we go! Both tennis players meticulously won points on their serve; the first break happened only in the third set - it was made by Safin. True, by this time he was already losing the games 0:2.
Further heroic efforts by the Russian were in vain, although Marat, in brilliant style, took two games, leveling the score. Our leader had not yet recovered from the protracted battles in Australia, and again he had to endure many hours of struggle. There is no tiebreaker in the fifth act of the drama. In fact, the two service kings needed to play almost two more games to determine the winner - 7:6 (7:3), 7:6 (7:5), 1:6, 4:6, 11:9 in favor of Mirny. The match began at 19 o'clock, and the last ball of Safin's serve was played when the arrow on the dial was approaching half past midnight.
The outcome of the doubles match and the duel between Mirny and Andreev was easily predicted. Nothing unexpected happened to them. Safin and Yuzhny provided only the most minimal chances to Mirny and Shvets - 6:4, 7:6, 7:6 (7:4). On Sunday, Mirny did not let anyone doubt his superiority over Andreev for a minute - 6:3, 6:4, 6:3. Tarpishchev’s decision not to play Safin in the key match became known only on Sunday morning. Probably our captain had too much faith in Mikhail Youzhny. He had to beat any of the Belarusians, except Mirny - Shvets, Korotchenya or the sufferer Volchkov. A little over a year ago, Yuzhny was called the hero of the Davis Cup final, but now his inexpressive play forces Russia to compete in qualifying matches at the end of the season for the right to play in the 2005 World Group. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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