Farewell to authority

Nikolay Davydenko defeated the best dirt biker in the world

At least four Russians will compete in the quarterfinals of the men's and women's singles tournaments at the French Open in Paris. The match between Marat Safin and Spaniard Tommy Robredo lasted for five games and ended late yesterday evening. If Safin won, he would go up against Nikolai Davydenko in the quarterfinals.

The day before, several matches were postponed due to darkness, and the match between last year's US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova and former world number one Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne did not start at all. In the second Russian derby of the day, immediately after the meeting between Dementieva and Likhovtseva, Petrova made it to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the second time in her life, defeating Elena Bovina - 7:5, 3:6, 6:4. In almost all the main statistical indicators, except for aces (4:0 in favor of Petrova), the rivals and fellow countrymen were completely equal, and even the score of points won in the match was a draw - 102:102. If we remember the super tension of the first round match between Sharapova and Evgenia Linetskaya, the drama of the three-hour fight between Dementieva and Likhovtseva, it turns out that the head-to-head meetings of Russian women in Paris are always irreconcilable in nature.

Yesterday, Kuznetsova and Henin-Hardenne were the first to take to the center court. In the previous seven meetings, success was on the side of the Belgian six times. And this time she managed to defeat the Russian. Svetlana led 5:2 in the first set tiebreaker, but lost her advantage. The daughter of a famous coach of Russian cyclists was as close as possible to winning the match in general. In the deciding set, with the score 5:3 on someone else's serve, Kuznetsova missed several match points, then allowed the Belgian to make a break, and then restore equality in the set. Disappointed that she could not make the last efforts on the way to victory, Svetlana finally came unstuck, and the Belgian advanced to the quarterfinals, winning four games in a row - 7:6 (8:6), 4:6, 7:5. Henin-Hardenne won her 21st official match in a row and will now face Maria Sharapova. The Russian, who lives in the USA, completed the postponed match with Spaniard Nuria Llagostra-Vives without any problems - 6:2, 6:3.

The only defeat of Henin-Hardenne this season was inflicted by Sharapova - this happened at the April first-category WTA tournament in Miami. A little over a month later, the subject of the Belgian kingdom was able to take revenge from her younger rival at a clay competition of a similar rank in Berlin, depriving Maria of the opportunity to continue the fight for the title and become number one in the world classification. The composition of the remaining quarterfinal pairs in the women's tournament is as follows: Lindsay Davenport (USA) - Marie Pierce (France), Likhovtseva - Cecile Karatancheva (Bulgaria), Petrova - Anna Ivanovich (Serbia and Montenegro).

Nikolai Davydenko pleased Russian tennis fans the most on Monday. It seemed that his chances of winning the match with the 2004 French Open finalist, Argentine Guillermo Coria, were low. The South American holds the unofficial title of the world's strongest clay-court player; moreover, a year ago at Roland Garros he knocked Davydenko out of the fight in the first round, without giving the Russian the slightest hope of success - 6:4, 6:2 , 6:0. Unfortunately for the Argentine, a lot has changed in Davydenko's game in 12 months. He improved significantly, added physical strength and prudence in his actions on the court, and stopped shying away from eminent opponents.

Nikolai started the match extremely hard - he fought for a long time in each game of the opening set, but for a long time he allowed the Argentine to lead with a clean score, up to 5:0. Corea took this set, but then the turning point came in the match. Davydenko began to use exits to the net more and more effectively, not allowing the enemy to impose their tedious game on him - an endless exchange of blows from the baseline. Guillermo was not ready for the Russian’s active actions, but his failure in the tiebreaker in the third game finally finished him off. Davydenko, as at the Australian Open in January, again, for the second time in a row, reached the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament - 2:6, 6:3, 7:6 (7:1), 6:2. Ahead of us are matches for reaching the top quartet: Roger Federer (Switzerland) - Victor Hanescu (Romania), Rafael Nadal - David Ferrer (both Spain), Guillermo Canas - Mariano Puerta (both Argentina). Ferrer yesterday made former Roland Garros champion Gaston Gaudio, beating the Argentine in five games - 2:6, 6:4, 7:6 (7:5), 5:7, 6:4.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY