Translated material
Patience training
Sharapova held the Birmingham tournament in anticipation of clear weather
Qualifying matches for the third Grand Slam tournament this season, the British Open, will begin today on the courts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. For now, the first week of competitive preparation on grass for the world's leading players for Wimbledon is behind us. The men played in London and Halle (Germany), the girls experienced many problems due to bad weather in Birmingham.The world number one, Swiss Roger Federer, who had won four previous tournaments here, was absent from the Halle courts. He decided not to go to Germany after the final of the French Open, and in the main draw of the competition, the native of Basel was replaced at the last moment by the loser of the decisive round of qualifying, the Romanians Andrei Pavel. The strongest Russian tennis player Nikolai Davydenko, having won the second victory in his career on grass (he upset the Austrian Jurgen Melzer), was defeated by the German Florian Mayer in the 1/8 finals. The best of our compatriots in Halle turned out to be Mikhail Youzhny, who reached the quarterfinals thanks to victories over the American Michael Russell and the little-known local tennis player Simon Stadler, who started from the qualifications. The Muscovite was forced to abandon the fight with the Czech Tomas Berdych due to an exacerbation of his back injury. Berdych eventually reached the final and challenged the title against Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis last night.
In London, there were 24 more players in the main draw - 56 participants, and the list of applicants for the main prize was more representative. The second racket of the world, three-time Roland Garros champion and last year's Wimbledon finalist Rafael Nadal even showed up for a warm-up on the grass in doubles (together with fellow countryman Feliciano Lopez), without, however, trying to win laurels in this field. In singles, the Spaniard made it to the quarterfinals, where he was stopped by the Frenchman Nicolas Mahou - 5:7, 6:7 (0:7). For the best dirt tracker in the world, the performance in London should be considered worthy. He lost to Mach in a more than stubborn fight, and at the previous stage he beat the Belarusian Maxim Mirny (height 195 cm), who felt comfortable on the grass, a master of strong and powerful serves.
Another grenadier of the ATP tour, Croatian Ivo Karlovich, the tallest tennis player in the world (height 208 cm), in the third round blocked the path of our Marat Safin, clearly confirming his nickname Mister Tiebreaker - 7:6 (7:3), 7: 6 (7:4). Dmitry Tursunov, who was among the quartet of the strongest participants in the tournament, demonstrated an excellent degree of readiness for Wimbledon. Among the opponents defeated by the Russian permanently residing in the United States were Canadian Frank Dantsevich, the eternal “client” of our players, Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, and 2007 Australian Open finalist Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. And only Andy Roddick interrupted Tursunov's winning pace - 6:4, 7:5. The American argued for the title with Mahu yesterday.
At the competition in Birmingham, Maria Sharapova had to not so much hone her skills on a fast surface, but rather train her endurance and patience - also an important element of psychological preparation for Wimbledon. It started to rain in the middle of the week, which is why Maria had to wait two days for her fight with Austrian Tamira Paszek. On Saturday, Sharapova had to take the court twice to make up for lost time. First, she dealt with the talented 16-year-old Pashek with great difficulty - 6:3, 4:6, 6:2, after which she defeated Elena Likhovtseva - 6:2, 6:3.
By Sunday, even all the quarterfinals had not finished. The match between Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and Frenchwoman Marie Bartoli was postponed with the score 1:1 in games due to darkness, and a couple of matches at this stage in doubles also remained unplayed. That is, some tennis players were faced with the theoretical need to play three matches in one day.
Bartoli spent about an hour in the morning to put the finishing touches on Hantuchova - 5:7, 6:4, 7:5, rested a little and went out to meet Sharapova. In the second game of this meeting, the Frenchwoman's inability to cope with such non-standard situations with a busy schedule clearly showed itself - 5:7, 0:6. Moreover, in this match, the girls were forced to take an unplanned break in the middle of the first set - it started to rain again. Simultaneously with the continuation of the Bartoli-Hantuchov match, the semi-final between Serbian Jelena Jankovic and Italian Mara Santangelo took place on the third most important court of the Birmingham Tennis Club. Jankovic, seeded second here, won - 6:4, 7:5 and entered into a long wait for the decisive match. Sharapova's rest came during the doubles semifinals. The title was awarded after the issue of our newspaper was signed.