Translated material
First week sensations
Eight Russians continue to compete in Wimbledon singles
Sunday was a legal day off for the third Grand Slam tournament of the season. This short break provided an opportunity to sum up the results of the first week of competition. Although only eight of the 32 Russians originally in the singles draw - two men and six women - will continue to compete, Russia retains the largest representation at Wimbledon. For comparison: Spain and the USA have three tennis players left, and other countries have even fewer.In the men's tournament, apart from the sensational defeat of the third racket of the world, Serbian Novak Djokovic, in the second round from the Russian Marat Safin, everything else corresponds to the forecasts of experts. Before Wimbledon, many believed that this time the championship title would be contested by the two main favorites of the tournament - the world's first racket, the Swiss Roger Federer and the Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Moreover, if Federer wins, he will become a six-time winner of this tournament.
Cemetery of minions
The women's competition in the first week was not without several sensational surprises. The first of them was the loss in the second round of the second racket of the world, Russian Maria Sharapova, who lost to compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva. A day later, the leader of the world women's ranking, Ana Ivanovic from Serbia, was forced to sheath her racket after losing to Chinese Zheng Jie. The list of losers also included Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, last year's Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli, as well as Russian Dinara Safina, winner of the Berlin tournament and finalist of Roland Garros.
As for Sharapova's second match at Wimbledon, she was unable to show her attacking tennis. In addition, the tennis player didn’t have a good serve, and without a serve on the grass you can’t win. As one of the Russians, Evgenia Rodina, figuratively noted, looking at Sharapova’s game, she got the impression that the tennis player did everything as if in a “slow motion movie.”
Explaining the reasons for the unsuccessful performance of the leaders of world women's tennis, the president of the All-Russian Tennis Federation, captain of the country's national teams, Shamil Tarpishchev, in his blog on the website sports.ru, pointed out the following reasons: “Despite the surprise of the defeats of Sharapova and Ivanovich, it must be said that they could have been expected , and there are several reasons for this. One of them is the upcoming Olympics, which for many players is the central tournament of the year, since it is of high prestige - the Grand Slam tournaments are held four times a year, and the Olympics once every four years. Many players are already thinking about how they will play in Beijing. But the main thing is the increased competition in women's tennis. On the one hand, after Henin left, there were more contenders for the first place in the ranking, on the other hand, it is impossible to name one, the main one, the leader of the ranking can now change almost every month. And in such a situation, a double burden is placed on the top ten tennis players, they are constantly under emotional stress, and the game suffers because of this. Therefore, it is easier for the girls, whom no one considers to be favorites, to play matches with the bigs. They are relaxed, play their own tennis and easily take advantage of the mistakes of their famous rivals, making them more and more nervous and therefore make more mistakes.”
Indeed, the defeats of Ivanovich and Sharapova will entail changes in the women's rankings. After Wimbledon, the Serbian tennis player will most likely give up the title of the first racket of the world, which two athletes can claim - her compatriot Jelena Jankovic, if she reaches the semifinals, and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, if she reaches the final.
The day before, Kuznetsova successfully completed the third round of the tournament, beating the Czech Barbara Zahlavova-Strykova - 6:2, 6:4. The score of the match does not fully reflect the intensity of this fight. The fact is that since Friday evening at Wimbledon the “traditional” rain for this tournament began to rain. In the second set, the tennis players were forced to interrupt the game for this reason, but soon they were called back onto the court. According to Kuznetsova, it turned out somehow very crumpled, and she didn’t even have time to really have a snack, because she didn’t expect the break to be so short. However, as the Russian woman later admitted, on this day, and Svetlana was celebrating her birthday, she could not lose, although it was extremely difficult to tune in to the match due to the numerous congratulations that were sent to her.
At the same time, Kuznetsova noted positive dynamics in her game. According to her, despite the lack of playing practice on grass, with each match she gains the feeling and confidence that she is playing better and better.
Kudryavtseva - opening of the tournament
A similar opinion is shared by another Russian, Nadezhda Petrova, for whom this season started poorly due to injury. A quadriceps strain forced the athlete to stop training and performing for six weeks. However, according to the 26-year-old Muscovite, thanks to her collaboration with Costa Rican coach, Argentine Matias Polonsky, she is gradually regaining her previous form. In the third round, Petrova defeated Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, not without problems - 7:6 (13:11), 7:6 (7:4). And in the next round she faced Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, who was called the “opening of the tournament” at this year’s Wimbledon.
Indeed, in the second round, the 20-year-old tennis player managed to break the resistance of the second racket of the world, Maria Sharapova. And in the next match she proved that her winning step was not accidental. Kudryavtseva beat Chinese Peng Shuai - 6:3, 1:6, 6:4. Although after the match she admitted that, having defeated Sharapova, she felt emotionally devastated. “The match with the Chinese woman turned out to be very difficult,” Kudryavtseva commented on her success. - The burden of responsibility was much greater than in the match against Maria. Then I was calm: I had nothing to lose. In the duel with the Chinese woman, for a long time I could not find my game, get into the right rhythm. But I’m glad that I managed to win.”
Elena Dementieva, seeded fifth at Wimbledon, also chalked up another difficult victory. In a bitter fight, she beat Gisela Dulko from Argentina - 7:6 (7:2), 7:5. The match turned out to be very tense. Dementieva lost two of her serves at the beginning of the match, but managed to bring the set to a tiebreaker. After the duel, the Russian admitted that she did not expect to win the first segment of the game, but managed to pull herself together and put a winning point in the game. “The match turned out to be very difficult. When the score became 0:4, I had already said goodbye to the first set. At that moment I just wanted to find my game so that I could play more actively in the second game, but I managed to win the first one too. The opponent showed an unpleasant game for me. She moved well, returned a lot of balls, played on breaks. I haven’t been able to beat her before, so I’m very glad that this finally happened,” said Elena Dementieva.
Two more Russians, Anna Chakvetadze and Alisa Kleybanova, also advanced to the fourth round of the tournament. By the way, the latter knocked out the experienced 33-year-old Japanese Ai Sugiyama, who became the record holder for participation in Grand Slam tournaments. This year's Wimbledon was the 57th in a row for the athlete from the Land of the Rising Sun. After the match with Kleybanova, Sugiyama spoke very flatteringly about the Russian’s performance. “She played just great,” the Japanese woman praised. Indeed, the match ended with a score of 6:4, 6:4 in favor of Kleybanova, who outplayed her opponent in all respects.
Marat Safin surpassed his sister
Minus surprises include Dinara Safina's loss to Shahar Pir from Israel - 5:7, 7:6 (7:4), 6:8. This time Dinara failed to turn the match in her favor, as happened more than once at Roland Garros.
Unlike his younger sister, Marat, Safin is still among the Wimbledon participants. This fact can also be counted among the local victories of the tennis player. He achieved such success for the first time in seven years. After his victory in the third round over Italian Andreas Seppi, Safin jokingly admitted that he had changed his return ticket to Monday. The match between Safin and Seppi, which ended with a score of 7:6 (7:5), 3:6, 7:6 (7:3), 6:4, ended in pitch darkness, at half past nine local time. “We no longer saw each other on the other side of the court,” Safin shared his impressions after the match. - I asked to postpone the match to tomorrow, but the referee said that this was only possible if the score was equal. It was very cold. But the audience remained in the stands until the very end.” Shamil Tarpishchev commented on Safin’s current performance: “The third round match with Seppi was very important for Marat. On the one hand, I wanted the Russian, regardless of the result, to play his tennis, as they say, to consolidate it even better at such a high level. On the other hand, for Marat to win without delaying the match against the Italian too much and without losing a lot of strength that he may need in the next round. In general, everything worked out well. The match was not very protracted, and Marat played aggressively. Of course, not without mistakes, but we must take this calmly. Safin cannot live without this. The main thing is that their percentage is at an acceptable level, and so far this is working out.”
If the match between Safin and Seppi lasted almost three hours, then another Russian Mikhail Youzhny needed another hour more to reach the fourth round. In a tense match, Youzhny prevailed over the Czech Radek Stepanek - 7:5, 6:7 (5:7), 6:4, 6:7 (4:7), 6:3. “As for the match with Stepanek,” coach Boris Sobkin commented on his ward’s performance, “the Czech is inconvenient for any opponent. Radek's playing fits well with grass. The match, as expected, turned out to be difficult. To Misha's credit, he dealt with all the problems and eventually won. It is very important to find the strength to win when things are not going well. Such victories are very valuable to me. And the fact that it is not expected to be an easy ride at the tournament was not a secret for us, and we are ready for it.”
But Dmitry Tursunov, having beaten the strong American Andy Roddick in the previous round, failed to cope with the Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the third round - 6:7 (1:7), 6:7 (3:7), 3:6.