| Dementieva and Myskina competed for the title in Paris Elena Dementieva and Anastasia Myskina will meet in the main match of the women's singles competition at the French Open. Yesterday, on the center court of the Parisian Roland Garros stadium, they wrote the brightest page so far in the history of Russian women's tennis, more than confidently defeating their opponents in the semifinals. Dementieva defeated Paola Suarez from Argentina - 6:0, 7:5, Myskina forced American Jennifer Capriati to capitulate - 6:2, 6:2.
Just the day before, fans of our tennis players only dreamed that at least one of the girls would make it to the decisive stage of the tournament, and on Thursday evening the first purely Russian final at this level became a reality. The rapid and completely obvious progress of Russian women in this sport, achieved in recent years, will be supported for the first time by a victory at one of the most prestigious competitions. After all, previously the title at women's Grand Slam tournaments was unattainable for us. The official website of Roland Garros immediately responded to the iconic success of Elena and Anastasia: “On Saturday, the main arena will turn into Red Square.” Probably, tomorrow the two-week worries about my compatriots will fade away. By and large, it is completely unimportant who gets the main prize of the competition - Dementieva or Myskina. It will be possible to simply, realizing the superiority of the two rivals over all foreign opponents, watch and enjoy the beautiful game.
“This is incredible, and I’m incredibly happy,” Dementieva said. - Fantastic, because I will have to play for the title with Nastya! We know each other very well, we came into big sport almost at the same time and have already met thirty times in fights at different levels.” Dementieva even joked: “Maybe we should leave Paris and play the final in Moscow?” Myskina did not hide her joyful surprise: “I am amazed at myself, because I did not expect to stay in Paris for so long. Capriati may not have shown the best tennis, but I am completely satisfied with my game. And I’m even more proud that my victory made the Russian final a fait accompli.”
The score of personal meetings between two Russian women at WTA tournaments is equal - 3:3. On Saturday, this balance of power will be upset. Both girls have already earned 430 thousand euros for reaching the finals. The winner of the upcoming match will double the amount of bonuses earned. Despite such an impressive rate, material incentives are unlikely to be the dominant factor tomorrow. In addition to the chance to go down in history, Myskina, if successful, will be able to gain a stronger foothold in the already guaranteed third place in the world rankings. If Dementieva wins, she will soar in the BTA classification like never before - to fifth position. The Russians have an excellent springboard to prepare for the assault on the summit.
Elena Dementieva and Anastasia Myskina demonstrated almost impeccable tennis in yesterday's semifinals of the French Open. Only in the middle of the second game of the Dementieva-Suarez match did the Russian give up, giving away points on three consecutive serves, but immediately compensated for her temporary failures with breaks. And Myskina, who received the nickname Russian Metronome from the French press for her error-free and reliable actions during the longest exchanges of blows, simply crushed the formidable Jennifer Capriati.
The Argentine did not lose a single game in five matches on her way to the final. But Suarez, until yesterday, had not had the opportunity to meet tennis players of Dementieva’s class in Paris. Elena was able to impose her game on Paola: moving away from the monotonous passing of the ball, the Russian woman often raided the net and showed sharp attacking tennis. Of course, both opponents were nervous, as evidenced by the number of double faults on serve - eight for Suarez and nine for Dementieva. Elena pulled herself together in time and finished the second set with the same inspiration with which she started the match. Myskina was not a favorite in the fight with Capriati, and yet Nastya did not give the experienced American a single chance. Jennifer looked disarmed, depressed and confused. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Russian played the best match of her life in terms of the quality of her play. Allowing the Olympic champion and three-time Grand Slam winner to win only four games is worth a lot.
It may also turn out that if everything goes well, the Russians will take home more than one trophy from the French capital. In doubles, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Likhovtseva, seeded second in the tournament, continue to fight for the title. Today our girls are playing in the semifinals against the legendary 47-year-old world tennis veteran, American of Czech origin, Martina Navratilova and her compatriot and partner Lisa Raymond. The other pair of semi-finalists was the same Paola Suarez together with the Spanish Virginia Ruano-Pascual and another international tandem Sandrine Testu (France) - Roberta Vinci (Italy). By the way, Testu is one of the few tennis players who managed to return to the BTA tour after the birth of a child. Sandrine resumed her performances only in May; the forced break in her career lasted almost two years. The decision to continue active performances was made at a family council; the athlete’s husband, Vittorio Magnelli, is also her coach.
The first final on the courts of Roland Garros will take place today - the champion in mixed doubles, that is, mixed doubles, will be determined. Alas, Elena Bovina and Serbian Nenad Zimonzic, winners of the January Australian Open, lost yesterday to the home team Tatyana Golovin and Richard Gasquet - 5:7, 6:3, 1:6. The French couple's opponents will be Cara and Wayne Black, siblings from Zimbabwe. The main matches on Friday are the men's semi-finals. None of the four remaining participants in the bracket knows the taste of victories at Grand Slam tournaments. The quartet of the strongest included three representatives of Argentina, so with a very high probability we can predict that the final will generally turn out to be an internal showdown between two masters from the South American country who love to play on clay. The score of personal matches between Guillermo Coria and Briton Tim Henman is 2:1 in favor of the Argentinean, and the opponents won one victory each on clay. Strange as it may seem, the paths of Gaston Gaudio and David Nalbandian have never crossed at ATP competitions. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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