Blake's client

Nikolay Davydenko was unable to overcome an awkward opponent

Another week of overseas “tours” of Russian tennis players did not add joyful emotions to domestic fans. None of our players who participated in two prestigious tournaments - women's (Toronto) and men's (Cincinnati) - made it to the finals. The best result among the Russians was shown by Nikolay Davydenko, who reached the semifinals in the USA, where he lost to the host of the court, James Blake - 4:6, 2:6.

In the Masters series tournament in Cincinnati with a prize fund of 2 million 450 thousand. dollars, four Russians started - Nikolay Davydenko, Marat Safin, Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Yuzhny. Safin, who lost in the starting round to the German Nicholas Kiefer, was the first to sheath his racket. After the second, Tursunov and Yuzhny were forced to pack their bags. The first lost to the Swiss Roger Federer, who leads the ATP rankings, the second to the American Sam Quarray, who received a wild card from the organizers. Nikolay Davydenko advanced further in the tournament bracket, who was stopped by Blake one step away from the final.

It was not difficult to predict the outcome of the confrontation between Davydenko and Blake. Blake was initially considered an inconvenient opponent for Davydenko. Before Saturday's match, the tennis players met five times, and the American won all five matches. The current game was no exception, which the Russian started in an aggressive manner. Davydenko took the lead 2:0, after which he lost four games in a row, but then leveled the score - 4:4. However, despite this, the native of Severodonetsk failed to take the initiative into his own hands. The first set ended in a tiebreaker, which was won by the home team (6:4). Having gained the advantage, Blake took the lead in the second set, during which he twice broke the Russian's serve. And in the end, the American broke Davydenko's resistance - 6:2.

After the game, Blake ambitiously stated that he always shows the best tennis in matches against Davydenko. The American explained this phenomenon with self-confidence. According to him, it is his psychological attitude that gives him an advantage in the confrontation with the Russian tennis player. “I hope that my winning streak will not be limited to six matches, but will continue,” concluded Blake.

In the final of the current tournament in Cincinnati last night, Blake played with the first racket of the world, Roger Federer. It is noteworthy that the score of the personal meetings between the Swiss and the American is also 6:0. True, this time in favor of a tennis player from the Old World. In addition, the Swiss’s motivation is more than convincing: Federer won 49 matches in ATP competitions and, of course, will try to “round up” this figure. However, before the final, Blake stated that he had a chance to finish this match in his favor. Blake's favorable predictions are based on the fact that he is in excellent shape and has studied Federer's playing style in detail.

Eight Russians were entered in the women's tournament in Toronto with a prize fund of $1 million 340 thousand - Nadezhda Petrova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Elena Dementyeva, Dinara Safina, Maria Kirilenko, Olga Puchkova and Anastasia Rodionova. But only two of them, Petrova and Kuznetsova, reached the quarterfinals, where Petrova lost to Justine Henin from Belgium - 6:7 (4:7), 3:6, and Kuznetsova - to the Frenchwoman Tatyana Golovin - 6:2, 5 :7, 1:6. And if the score of the relationship between Petrova and Enin clearly testified in favor of the Belgian - 10:2, then Kuznetsova and Golovin had met twice before. In 2004, the victory went to the Frenchwoman, in 2006 - to Kuznetsova. Now, having easily won the first set, Kuznetsova believed in victory too early, for which she paid.

Let us remind you that a few days earlier, four Russian women lost in the opening round of the tournament in Canada. Moreover, after her match, Chakvetadze referred to physical fatigue: they say, she could not even move around the court. Both Serbian Novak Djokovic and Spaniard Rafael Nadal complained of similar symptoms, which led to speculation that the tennis players were victims of some kind of overseas virus. However, according to sports doctors, the reason for this is most likely the frequent moves of players from continent to mainland, which weaken the immune system, which makes athletes a target for various types of infections.

Olga ERMOLINA