Translated material
Semi-final guarantee
At least one of the Russians will be among the strongest quartet at Roland Garros
Sunday at the French Open tennis championship passed without the participation of Russians in personal meetings. Many of our compatriots focused on pairs performances. Yesterday at Roland Garros the first quarterfinalists in singles were determined, and there were some sensations. The Serbians successfully completed their matches in the daytime gaming session. Ana Ivanovic defeated Czech Petra Cetkovska - 6:0, 6:0, Jelena Jankovic defeated Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) - 6:3, 7:6 (7:3). In other meetings, little-known masters of the big racket distinguished themselves. The 132nd (!) world racket, Spanish Carla Suarez Navarro, defeated the 26th “seeded” Flavia Penetta (Italy) - 6:3, 6:2, the 80th number of the ATP ranking, Latvian Ernests Gulbis, beat the Frenchman Michel Llodra - - 6:4, 7:6 (7:4), 6:3. And the most interesting and intriguing singles matches for our tennis fans took place the day before, on Saturday.The main news of the day was the unexpected defeat of the fourth racket of the world Nikolai Davydenko, who lost to the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in a three-hour five-set match - 6:4, 6:2, 3:6, 2:6, 4:6. After the end of the game, Davydenko could not really explain what happened to him in the third set, which became the key moment of the confrontation. Having won the first two games, the Russian, apparently, calmed down and relaxed, which resulted in errors that the opponent did not fail to take advantage of, using his most powerful serve. It is noteworthy that before this match the tennis players played six times, and the score of personal matches was equal - 3:3. This season, Davydenko has already defeated Ljubicic at the Masters tournament in Hamburg, and quite easily - 6:4, 6:1. However, this time, at Roland Garros, the Croatian, contrary to logic, turned out to be stronger. By the way, for Ljubicic this is only the fourth time in his career when he managed to tip the scales in his favor, losing two opening sets.
Sadly, Davydenko became the last Russian participant whose name appeared in the men's draw of the French Open. Earlier, four more Russians completed their performances - Dmitry Tursunov, Mikhail Yuzhny, Igor Andreev and Marat Safin. The fact that Tursunov, for whom clay is not his strong point, was able to hold out at Roland Garros until the third round can, to some extent, be regarded as a success. According to the captain of the Russian tennis team, Shamil Tarpishchev, he did not expect a successful performance in France from Tursunov. Although the player has improved. But so far Tursunov has little choice of attacking actions on clay, and this affects the results.
The defeats of the others did not come as a surprise to Tarpishchev. Due to his injury, Yuzhny still has problems with his first serve, which leaves much to be desired in terms of strength and speed. Andreev, for whom clay is a convenient surface, lost mainly due to fatigue. Before Roland Garros, Andreev played seven tournaments in a row, and after the World Team Championship in Dusseldorf he said that he was morally devastated. In this state of affairs, concentration in the game is lost, mistakes appear, which inevitably lead to loss. As for Marat Safin, who lost to Nikolay Davydenko a few days earlier, despite the loss, Safin can count this match of this season as an asset. At the beginning of the fight, Safin looked on equal terms with Davydenko, and then he did not have enough physical condition and self-confidence to bring this match to a victorious end.
For Russian tennis players, despite the losses, the picture is much more rosy. Let us remember that a few days earlier Anna Chakvetadze and Elena Vesnina, with whom Maria Sharapova’s first coach Yuri Yudkin is now working, dropped out of the fight. Chakvetadze, for whom the current season is not easy, said that she will go to train in Belgium, at the Justine Henin Tennis Academy, where she will begin to collaborate with the mentor of the former first racket of the world.
On Saturday, Nadezhda Petrova joined the company of our losers, losing to compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova - 2:6, 1:6. In this fight, Kuznetsova was the clear favorite, and not only because she is higher in the WTA rankings. For Petrova, the current season is complicated by a hand injury, due to which the tennis player is forced to not train for quite a long time. The first tournament she played after the break took place in Turkey, on the eve of Roland Garros. But for objective reasons, Petrova was unable to get into optimal shape. Kuznetsova will meet with Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) today.
Despite the fact that our remaining girls still have matches in the 1/8 finals, the Russians have already booked their place in the semi-finals, since the winners of the Sharapova-Safina and Zvonareva-Dementieva pairs will meet each other in the next round. As for the upcoming duels, the most interesting is the match between the first two - Maria Sharapova and Dinara Safina. There was no shortage of pre-match commentary and interviews. And if Safina’s confident play is accompanied by positive feedback, Sharapova’s performance at the current Roland Garros is increasingly subject to criticism. The world number one still has a bad first serve, a high percentage of double faults and an uneven, constrained game. Nevertheless, Sharapova defeated Italian Karin Knapp in the previous round - 7:6 (7:4), 6:0 and is now preparing for the match with her compatriot. True, the tennis player herself told reporters that it doesn’t matter to her who she plays with. Everything will depend on her, and to win she must show aggressive tennis, avoid mistakes and not give her opponent easy balls.
And two more words about women's competitions. At the end of last week, both Williams sisters left Paris, leaving no Americans in the women's tournament bracket. The sisters did not hide their disappointment, but they remained strong. They told reporters that they would come next year and try to win these competitions.