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Myskina crashes early in the US Open for the third time in a row
On Wednesday, after a 24-hour break, matches finally resumed at the last Grand Slam tournament of the season - the US Open in New York. The rain has stopped, and the competitors are forced to make up for the previously disrupted schedule of matches. We can absolutely say that the pause benefited our men, who showed a 100% result in meetings with foreign opponents.Marat Safin, who has dropped out of the top hundred in the world rankings, is trying to get out of his unenviable position. Having given one game to the little-known Czech Robin Vick, the Russian still advanced to the second round - 6:1, 6:1, 3:6, 6:3. Nikolay Davydenko won a strong-willed victory over Paraguayan Ramon Delgado, who had been competing all summer in the US club championship under the ambitious name World Team Tennis - 4:6, 6:4, 7:5, 6:0. Teimuraz Gabashvili, a debutant at tournaments of this level, spent the longest time among our compatriots on the court. In the fifth game, he finally put the finishing touches on the Brazilian Marcos Daniel - 6:3, 6:2, 3:6, 3:6, 6:3. Dmitry Tursunov prevailed over Vladivostok native Igor Kunitsyn in the Russian derby - 6:2, 6:3, 6:4.
The pairings of the second round with the participation of Russians are as follows: Tursunov - Alejandro Falla (Colombia), Gabashvili - James Blake (USA), Safin - David Nalbandyan (Argentina), Davydenko - Nicolas Mahut (France). The only one of all the US Open participants who managed to slip into the third round on Wednesday was court owner Andy Roddick, who sent Dane Christian Pless to rest.
Maria Sharapova easily dealt with the sister of the 1995 Wimbledon finalist, Dutchwoman Mikaela Krajicek - 6:3, 6:0. The third racket of the competition spent just under an hour on this match, making ten aces against her opponent’s three. Maria did not allow her opponent from the Land of Tulips to take at least one game on someone else's serve. The opponents mostly exchanged shots from the baseline and rarely went to the net. Now Sharapova will face the Frenchwoman Emilie Lo, who defeated her compatriot Camille Pin in three games - 5:7, 6:4, 7:6 (7:4).
Elena Likhovtseva, next to the 2004 Wimbledon winner in the tournament bracket. In the first round match, she defeated the Olympic champion of Athens in doubles, Chinese Tiantian Sun - 4:6, 6:0, 6:4. If now the most experienced of the current Russian masters of the big racket can beat the Australian Nicole Pratt, then in the 1/16 finals she will face Sharapova.
Nadezhda Petrova came out of the black zone. The 24-year-old Muscovite, starting with the French Open in May, stopped fighting after the first round matches in five tournaments in a row, but at the US Open she was able to break this unpleasant streak. Nadezhda, who received the fifth seed in New York, defeated Argentine Clarissa Fernandez - 6:2, 6:1. Petrova played brilliantly on serve - eight hits straight, and she played this match extremely aggressively, gaining 26 points with active actions, while the South American won only five such goals. Nadezhda simply must beat her next opponent, because Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual is better known as a specialist in playing doubles.
Total bad luck continues to haunt Anastasia Myskina on the courts of New York's Flushing Meadow stadium. During two previous visits to the US Open, Nastya was unable to get beyond the third round, and now she had to say goodbye to hopes of a successful performance already at the start. Myskina started the match with Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) on Tuesday, but managed to play only one game - the rain forced the girls to leave the court. After the match resumed, the Russian allowed Victoria to dictate her terms of the game and lost - 4:6, 2:6. Our losses in this quarter of the grid are most noticeable. Galina Voskoboeva turned out to be weaker than the Czech Eva Birnerova - 6:7 (4:7), 7:5, 3:6, Elena Vesnina is not yet ready to defeat players of the class of the French Marie Pierce - 5:7, 1:6 .
Vera Dushevina did not have enough to upset the representative of Serbia, the wife of the football player of the English club Manchester United Nemanja Vidic, Anna Ivanovich - 3:6, 7:5, 4:6. But Anna Chakvetadze, without any problems, solved the problem of reaching the 1/32 finals in a match with Slovakian Martina Sukha - 6:4, 6:1. The fight between Dinara Safina and Ukrainian Yulia Beygelzimer was also not difficult - 6:1, 6:3.