| Almost all participants in the final tournaments of the year are known The world tennis season has entered the home stretch. For men, this week the last Master Series tournament of 2003 is taking place, and on November 10, the final Masters Cup competition starts with the participation of the eight best players of the ATP Championship Race. For women, the final WTA championship will begin on November 5. Three million dollars in prize money in Los Angeles will be competed by eight girls in singles and four tandems in doubles.
Neither Yevgeny Kafelnikov nor Marat Safin came to the Masters in Paris. These players have health problems. Let us recall that at the recent Open Championship of St. Petersburg, after losing to the Spaniard Fernando Vicente, Safin withdrew from the doubles competition due to a leg injury and soon then officially notified the Masters organizers of his refusal to come to the French capital. After his failure in the fight with Mikhail Youzhny, Kafelnikov generally hinted that he would soon make an announcement about his retirement. Thus, at the last Masters of the season, Russia in the main draw is represented only by Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko, who have already completed their performances in the first round. Meeting with Briton Tim Henman, Davydenko lost 3:6, 4:6, and Yuzhny yesterday lost to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez - 6:7, 3:6. In general, the opening round of the Paris tournament turned out to be extraordinary. On Monday, six tennis players who made it through the qualifications won their matches at once. Argentinean Gaston Gaudio, in a match with the young French talent Richard Gasquet, managed to win back six match points in the tiebreaker in the second set and eventually celebrated victory in the third set.
From the point of view of qualifying for the Masters Cup in Houston (the total bonus amount is $3.7 million), almost everything is already clear. The first eight places in the championship race are occupied by Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain), Andy Roddick (USA), Roger Federer (Switzerland), Andre Agassi (USA), Guillermo Coria (Argentina), Rainer Schuttler (Germany), Carlos Moya (Spain) and another Argentinean, David Nalbandian. The first seven are already out of reach, and Nalbandian can be overtaken by a whole group of players, with the best chance of this being the Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, who plays in his native walls. This season, the rule according to which a tennis player who did not make it into the top eight of the championship race at the end of the year, but won one of the Grand Slam tournaments, has the right to compete at the Masters Cup, will not have to be used. All major competitions were won by the season leaders. By the way, the winner of the Australian Open, Agassi, is also not playing in Paris - he is saving up his strength before the fights in Houston.
The Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne stayed in first place in the world rankings for only seven days. Her compatriot Kim Clijsters has regained the title of the strongest player on the planet, the only question is, for how long? To stay at the top, Kim must defend last year's WTA Championship title, which will be extremely difficult even though several top tennis players will be unable to take part in the tournament on the courts of Los Angeles. The injured Americans Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport have definitely finished their season; most likely, Serena’s older sister Venus will not be at the tournament either.
Thus, the eight participants of the WTA Championship include two Belgians, our Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva, Jennifer Capriati and Chanda Rubin (both USA), Amelie Mauresmo (France), as well as the Japanese Ai Sugiyama. Next in the annual BTA ranking are our Nadezhda Petrova and Vera Zvonareva. Only a very successful performance at the current tournament in Philadelphia will allow one of them to beat Sugiyama and get a ticket to Los Angeles.
In this situation, one can only regret that at the end of last week in the final of the tournament on the Austrian court of Linz, Petrova lost to the Japanese. Elena Likhovtseva was the first to enter the fight. Without winning a single game in the match with American Ashley Harkleroad, she was forced to end the match early due to a leg injury. Another tournament is taking place in Quebec (Canada). Maria Sharapova, who rose in the world rankings from 37th to 32nd, the highest place in her career, is “seeded” here at number two. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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