Russian tennis players will play at home

After the victory over the Swedes, the Russian tennis team had an excellent chance of finally winning the Davis Cup. After all, she will also play the next match with the Argentines (it will take place on September 20-22) at home. And if he gets to the final, he will play either the French or the Americans in Russia. In general, the situation couldn’t be better.

Once upon a time, we should have been lucky with the draw: after all, for the last two seasons in the Davis Cup, the Russians withdrew in the early stages precisely because they were forced to play against strong opponents - the Spaniards and the Swedes - on the road. Now we are playing at home, and the opponent does not seem to be the strongest: in Buenos Aires, the Argentines suffered with the Croats in all five matches allotted by the regulations. Even though Goran Ivanisevic, the only Croatian star, was only able to play in doubles due to injury. But in the Davis Cup, as is well known, amazing transformations often happen to tennis players.
Take Gaston Gaudio. Not a bad ground player, of course, but even in the Argentina national team he is not number one. The first for today is Juan Ignacio Chela. But after the battle with the Croats, Gaston Gaudio’s record includes nine Davis Cup meetings and... nine victories! Maybe his tournament?
The last victory, despite the score, is the most difficult - so he says himself. On Sunday, at the beginning of the second set, when Gaston Gaudio essentially had only to put the finishing touches on Ivo Karlovic, Diego Maradona appeared on the stands of the Buenos Aires stadium, causing the crowd to jump to their feet and burst into a thunderous ovation. “My game immediately went a little wrong,” the tennis player admitted after the match. “How could it be otherwise if a childhood idol came to watch you?” Gaston Gaudio, we must give him his due, brought the match to victory, and the audience gave him a standing ovation. And for some reason, Diego Maradona first went to congratulate not his compatriots, but his friend Goran Ivanisevic, with whom he exchanged gifts. The Croatian, of course, received a Boca Juniors T-shirt, the Argentine’s home club, and the great football player received a tennis racket.
While the exchange was going on, Gaston Gaudio, along with his partners José Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Canas and Lucas Arnold, danced, sang and drank champagne that had been prepared in advance. And their captain Alejandro Gattiker said that the current team is quite ripe to repeat the feat of their compatriots 21 years ago. Then the Argentines, led by the legendary Guillermo Vilas, reached the final, in which they lost to the Americans. Now Alejandro Gattiker has only one obstacle left on his way to the final - Russia. Much more serious than Croatia.
The captain of the Russian national team, Shamil Tarpishchev, guessed that in the semifinals he would have to meet with the Argentines, back on Saturday: after the first day, they were leading the match with the Croats - 2:0. When asked where we would play, the captain paused and replied: “Luzhniki has more chances.” Apparently, after the defeat of the Swedes, the Sports Palace seems to him “happier” than the traditional Olympic Palace. When asked about the surface, he answered without hesitation: “This time it will not be a slow court, but one of the carpets.” However, no other reaction was expected. It is not advisable to lay the ground, as in the match with the Scandinavian team: if Argentina looks truly powerful on anything, it is on the ground.
And further. According to Shamil Tarpishchev, the situation before the September semi-final will resemble the one that developed on the eve of the April quarter-final. Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov fought with the Swedes immediately after the super tournament in American Key Biscayne, and they will also come from America for the match with Argentina - from the US Open. “If Evgeniy and Marat had gone far in Florida now, then we and Sweden would have big problems,” the captain of the Russian team emphasized. “The same will happen in September. Whoever gets free at the US Open Championship first will have an advantage.”
Shamil Tarpishchev, of course, is not looking beyond the semifinals yet. And what’s the point if all we know about the final is where it will take place, but we can only guess who our opponent will be in it. The chances in the France-USA semifinal are probably approximately equal. The Americans look like favorites based on names. But Pete Sampras, as the match with the Spaniards in Houston shows, is clearly not the same. Until last Friday, he had won ten tournaments on grass courts, and Alex Corretja had four... won matches. On April 5, the Spaniard won. “Since Sampras is losing to Corretja on the grass, maybe it’s time for him to retire from tennis,” Yevgeny Kafelnikov noted in this regard. And American captain Patrick McEnroe quite transparently hints at the need for Andre Agassi to return to the national team. Without him, it will probably be almost impossible to defeat the French - winners of the Davis Cup, by the way - on the road.

ALEXEY J-DOSPEKHOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 61 dated 04/09/2002, page 14

Authors:

Alexey Dospehov

You don't have to go far to win the Davis Cup