The Princess and the Passerby

The heroes of the week were Anna Chakvetadze and an unknown Belgian

Anna Chakvetadze won the fifth title in her career and the third this season. In the decisive match of the competition with a prize fund of 175 thousand dollars on the Cincinnati hard court, the Muscovite defeated the Japanese Akiko Morigami - 6:1, 6:3. The Russian woman rose one place in the world rankings and occupies the highest place in her career - seventh.

Chakvetadze has never lost in the finals. In fact, she won all five of her titles in less than a year. After all, Anna won her first tournament victory in October 2006, celebrating her triumph in Guangzhou (China). And immediately after arriving from the Middle Kingdom to Russia, she became the best at the Moscow Kremlin Cup. The outcome of the competition in Cincinnati is natural. Chakvetadze was considered the main favorite of the tournament, was seeded number one, and was also on a serious emotional high after the success of the Russian team in the semi-final match of the Federation Cup with the Stars and Stripes.

“I never expected that the final match would be so easy for me,” Chakvetadze admitted after the match with Morigami. - I think the Japanese woman was tired, since the day before she had to play a difficult three-set match. My tactics for the game was to make Morigami run around the court a lot, and I myself had to act as aggressively as possible. Even before the start of the tournament, I heard talk here that Chakvetadze does not lose in the finals. I’m glad I didn’t spoil my statistics.” To what the Russian woman said, we add that in three previous personal meetings she was invariably inferior to the tennis player from the Land of the Rising Sun and was finally able to break this series of defeats. Moreover, Chakvetadze and Morigami still play each other strictly one match per season.

Of the three men's tournaments that took place last week, the competition on the clay of the Dutch Amersfurt stands out. With such strong participants as Nikolay Davydenko, Mikhail Youzhny, and Spaniard Carlos Moya in the main draw, the Belgian qualifier Steve Darchis, who occupies 297th place in the world ranking, became the sensational winner. And the Austrian Werner Eschauer's entry into the final was also a big surprise. This 33-year-old tennis player mainly competes in “challengers”, and has never achieved anything serious in ATP tournaments, leaving in the early stages.

Darchis made it into the main draw for just the second time in his career and has now made history. Three years ago, German Tommy Haas, being 349th in the individual ATP classification, won the title in Houston, but that victory is not entirely correct to compare with the Belgian’s achievement. Sydney Olympics finalist Haas lowered his position in the rankings because he did not compete for a long time due to injury. Having recovered, he regained his previous condition, so, in fact, there was nothing sensational in his success.

The record holder during the existence of the ATP tour is Australian Lleyton Hewitt. When he was just starting his career at the adult level, in 1998 he won the home tournament in Adelaide, being considered at that time the 550th racket in the world. Now there were absolutely no prerequisites for Darchis’ success. It looks like he really had some kind of epiphany. The Russians helped the Belgian with their uncertain play. Darchis upset Igor Andreev in the quarterfinals (6:3, 6:4), and Mikhail Youzhny in the next round (4:6, 6:0, 7:5).

The Belgian, by tennis standards, does not fit the definition of a “young promising player” - he is already 23 years old. The Liege resident started this season in the “futures” series (this is generally the third level) in England and France, where he often had to compete with “teenagers”, accumulated rating points and became one of the participants in the “challengers”. Before the trip to Amersfurt, Darchis performed at clay tournaments in Reggio Emilia (Italy) and Scheveningen (Holland) and both times was eliminated in the starting circle, losing to opponents from the second hundred of the world rankings. What happened last Sunday in the Land of Tulips proves that miracles still happen in modern tennis.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY