Translated material
Victorious mood
Sharapova won her second tournament in a row
Maria Sharapova won the title for the second week in a row, completing a winning double in Western Europe. The Russian woman added to her success at the first category WTA competitions in Zurich yesterday's triumph on the courts of Linz, Austria. On Sunday, Maria defeated compatriot Nadezhda Petrova in the final match - 7:5, 6:2.Sharapova earned 195 ranking points, received a check for $95,500 and became the second racket of the world, displacing the Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne. Now our prima’s collection already includes 15 titles, including five this season. And if in terms of the number of trophies Maria is noticeably ahead of all other Russians, then in terms of the number of participations in the finals she yesterday caught up with the former leader of this nomination Anastasia Myskina - 19 each. For Petrova this was already the seventh final in 2007, and she won in five cases , having been defeated at this stage two weeks ago in Moscow and now in Linz. The score of her personal meetings with Sharapova became 1:4, and Nadezhda’s only victory was won a year ago at the group stage of the final BTA championship in a match that no longer had any sporting significance for Maria.
On the way to the final, Sharapova dealt with Greek Elena Danilidou, Serbian Anna Ivanovich and Swiss representative Patty Schneider. Petrova knocked out Israeli Shahar Pir, Samantha Stosur from Australia and Czech Nicole Vaidishova. Moreover, in these matches the Russians did not give up a single set to their opponents. The tournament passed without sensations - the first four “seeded” girls reached the semifinals, and in the finals the first and second rackets of the competition sorted things out.
Now both Maria and Nadezhda are in a good mood starting preparations for the final WTA Championship in Madrid, where they will be accompanied by Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva, the Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, the Belgians Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, as well as Martina Hingis (Switzerland). If one of these tennis players refuses, the first candidate for the vacancy will be Schneider, who has lost all chances to break into the top eight of the annual BTA ranking. Petrova and Clijsters will play at the third category tournament starting today in Hasselt (Belgium), the rest will prepare for performances in Madrid exclusively in training mode.
At the ATP St. Petersburg Open men's tournament with a prize fund of $1 million, after our Mikhail Youzhny and the first racket of the competition Nikolay Davydenko stopped fighting due to injuries, the composition of the participants in the semi-final pairs turned out to be unpresentable. It is not surprising that victories in these matches in two games were won by tennis players who were noticeably superior in class to their opponents. Two-time champion of the tournament on the banks of the Neva, Swede Thomas Johansson, defeated the 128th racket of the world Igor Kunitsyn - 6:3, 7:6 (7:3), Croatian Mario Ancic defeated another wild card holder, the little-known Latvian Ernest Gulbert, occupying only 204th position in the individual classification - 6:2, 6:3.
For what merits and on what basis the Latvian received a special invitation from the organizers to the main draw remains unclear to many. However, Gulbert himself said in an interview that this probably became possible thanks to his father’s good connections. As for Kunitsyn, a regular at insignificant challenger tournaments, he manages to make the most of the fact that leading foreign players studiously ignore competitions held in Russia. For two years in a row, Igor reached the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup, and now he has entered the best quartet at the St. Petersburg Open.
In the decisive match, Ancic did not allow Johansson to win the title for the third time in Northern Palmyra - 7:5, 7:6 (7:2). For the Croatian, this success is very useful, as he continues to fight for a ticket to the final Masters Cup tournament of the year in Shanghai and in the ATP championship race he moved from 11th place to 10th, getting closer and closer to the coveted eighth position. This is only the third title in Ančić’s career, and he won the previous two on the grass courts of the Dutch ‘s-Hertogenbosch (2005, 2006).
Today the last Masters of this season starts in Paris, which will finally determine the holders of tickets to China. In the first round, a micro-match between Russia and France will take place on the Bercy courts. Marat Safin will play with Nicolas Mahou, Igor Andreev will meet with the dark-skinned Gal Monfils. Nikolay Davydenko and Dmitry Tursunov were exempted from participation in the 1/32 finals, as they are among the 16 “seeded” participants.