| Anastasia Myskina revealed Anna Chakvetadze to the world Four Russian women reached the 1/8 finals of the US Open tennis championship in New York. Today, in the fight for reaching the top eight players of the tournament, Svetlana Kuznetsova will meet with Frenchwoman Marie Pearce, and Nadezhda Petrova will meet with the first racket of the world, Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne. At least one Russian woman has already secured her place in the quarterfinals, since last night Elena Dementieva played against our other compatriot, Vera Zvonareva.
Moreover, Dementieva had an additional day of rest before this meeting. Her opponent in the third round match, Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy, did not enter the court due to injury, and the match did not take place. Zvonareva, Petrova and Kuznetsova, on the contrary, played difficult matches. Nadezhda spent more than three hours sorting out her relationship with Italian Silvia Farina-Elia. The decisive game of this dramatic match lasted 1 hour 20 minutes, which is very rare for fights on hard. Petrova acted more clearly during key plays in the tiebreaks, which ultimately brought her victory - 4:6, 7:6 (8:6), 7:6 (7:3). Kuznetsova had to work hard to overcome the resistance of experienced American Amy Fraser. The Russian's red-haired opponent was unable to cope with Kuznetsova's powerful serve, allowing her to earn eight aces. In other components of the game, the veteran of the BTA tour and Svetlana acted almost on equal terms, and yet the victory remained with our tennis player - 7:6 (7:3), 7:5. Zvonareva turned out to be stronger than Colombian tennis player Fabiola Zuluaga - 6:4, 7:5.
Much was expected in New York from Maria Sharapova, but she upset her admirers. In the match with Pierce, Maria made 14 double errors and 47 unforced errors. Such a huge amount of technical defects did not allow the Wimbledon winner to continue the fight on the Flushing Meadow courts - 6:4, 2:6, 3:6. Vera Dushevina almost became the author of the sensation. She lost the first set in the match with Jennifer Capriati to zero, but in the second game she prevailed in the tiebreaker. After this, the American clearly became nervous - the prospect of being defeated by a little-known Russian woman frankly frightened her. In the end, the 1992 Olympic champion gathered her will and put the finishing touches on Dushevina - 6:0, 6:7 (4:7), 6:3. And the third meeting of a kind of micro-match between Russia and the USA brought success to the American. In a meeting between the two tallest girls in world tennis, Lindsay Davenport hit the ball stronger and more accurately than Elena Bovina - 7:6 (9:7), 6:2. Grand Slam tournament debutant 17-year-old Muscovite Anna Chakvetadze, who made noise in the previous round with a victory over the first racket of Russia Anastasia Myskina - 7:6 (7:3), 6:3, folded before the Greek Elena Danilidou in the next round -- 4:6, 2:6.
Before the start of the US Open, Chakvetadze was ranked 175th in the world classification with 179 points. Thanks to the huge bonus for her victory over Myskina, Anna earned 234 points in New York and at the beginning of next week she will certainly be in the top hundred of the BTA rankings for the first time. In general, so far the women's tournament is proceeding according to a predictable scenario. Only one unseeded girl made it into the top 16 players - Japanese Shinobu Asagu, who defeated Argentine Paola Suarez. All the strongest tennis players are still in action. Petrova's win against Henin-Hardenne or the Belgian's misfire in the next round will automatically make Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo the number one racket in the world.
In the men's competitions, which are scheduled to take place with some lag behind the women's fights, only Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko of the Russians reached the third round. Last night, Youzhny met with the Czech Tomas Berdych, and Davydenko played against the Slovak Karol Beck. Men also have a minimal number of surprises so far. All favorites continue to fight for the title. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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