Translated material
Green corridor
11 Russians reached the third round of Wimbledon
The results of the four days of the Wimbledon tournament look quite encouraging for the Russians. If fans of domestic tennis have long been accustomed to the stable successes of a whole group of our girls and take them for granted, then the friendly exit of four players into the third round of the men's singles competition gives new vivid impressions. Here, in general, Russia could not have suffered a single loss, if not for the injuries of Nikolai Davydenko with a winning score during the fight with Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden). Yesterday, Dmitry Tursunov unexpectedly became the author of the sensation, defeating the favorite of the local public and the main hope of the British, Tim Henman, in five games - 3:6, 6:2, 3:6, 6:3, 8:6. This meeting lasted 3 hours 45 minutes.Since 1996, Henman regularly reached at least the fourth round on the outskirts of London, and in the 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 seasons he performed in the semi-finals. True, all the British hopes that their compatriot would win the title at the unofficial grass-court world championship were invariably dashed. Tursunov made his debut here only last year, but when the opponents played four games and the score was equal - 2:2, the statistics began to testify in favor of the impending victory of the Russian permanently residing in the United States. The fact is that until yesterday he had only played four five-set matches in his career and celebrated success each time. In the 12th game of the decisive set, Dmitry had two match points on his serve, but did not convert them. The match went into a protracted ending, and then a break made by Tursunov arrived in time. Having arranged three more match points for himself in the next game, our tennis player did not miss his chance.
Dmitry's opponent in the 1/16 finals will be the Australian Wayne Arthurs, who also fought with the German Alexander Popp in all five games required by the regulations. Igor Andreev defeated the Italian David Sanguinetti - 6:4, 6:2, 3:6, 6:3. The 22-year-old Muscovite is not to be envied: his next opponent, American Andy Roddick, was seeded number two at the tournament, and a year ago he played in the final match. Mikhail Youzhny, on the eve of beating the Frenchman Jean-René Lisnar - 1:6, 7:5, 6:3, 6:4, is waiting for the already mentioned Swede Bjorkman. Marat Safin, as we already reported, will examine the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. Among the other results, it is worth noting the defeat of Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal from the modest Luxembourger Gilles Muller - 4:6, 6:4, 3:6, 4:6.
The current champion of the tournament, Maria Sharapova, inflicted a crushing defeat on the youngest participant in the competition, 15-year-old Bulgarian Cecile Karatancheva. The same one who, a year and a half ago, before the match with Maria in North America, in the presence of journalists, promised to “kick the ass” of the Russian woman. If then the Sofia teenager lost to the Russian in three sets, now the talkative teenager managed to take only one game from Sharapova - 0:6, 1:6. Masha has never dealt with anyone so cruelly this season.
Nadezhda Petrova easily defeated Severine Beltran (France) - 6:1, 6:2. The overall picture of the day for the Russians was spoiled by the failure of the 11th seeded Vera Zvonareva in the match with the little-known Czech Kveta Peschke - 6:1, 4:6, 3:6. Tatyana Panova failed to cope with Alena Bondarenko - 3:6, 6:2, 3:6. The third round pairs with the participation of our girls look like this: Dinara Safina - Lindsay Davenport (USA), Svetlana Kuznetsova - Nicole Vaidishova (Czech Republic), Elena Likhovtseva - Silvia Farina-Elia (Italy), Anastasia Myskina - Elena Yankovic (Serbia) and Montenegro), Elena Dementieva - Mashona Washington (USA), Nadezhda Petrova - Kara Black (Zimbabwe), Maria Sharapova - Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia).