Translated material
Season's collection
In 2008, Russian tennis players won 25 individual titles
Last Sunday on the Shanghai court the match for the Masters Cup title between Serbian Novak Djokovic and Nikolai Davydenko ended the season of individual elite competition. Until the end of the year, the international calendar includes the final of the Davis Cup Argentina - Spain (November 21-23) and several insignificant tournaments of the “challenger” category, so that all the strongest Russian masters of the big racket can rest and gain strength before the next season, but for now there is time to sum up their performances.Nikolay Davydenko and Vera Zvonareva reaching the finals of the final tournaments of the year is a more than worthy end to the season. For both athletes, this is the best result in their careers at the Masters Cup and the WTA Championship. Davydenko, with the exception of a few weeks, remained consistently in the top 5 of the world rankings, won the Masters in Miami (USA), won titles in Portschach (Austria) and Polish Warsaw, and played in the final of Estoril. Nikolai also entered the top five in prize money, earning just over $2.3 million.
The main event of the season in men's tennis was the change of the leader of the world classification. Having held the throne for 237 weeks in a row, which is an absolute record, the Swiss Roger Federer in August lost the title of first racket to the hitherto “eternally second” Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard won eight titles last season and earned $6.77 million. In total, 66 tennis players won at ATP tournaments, including Russians - Davydenko (3 times), Dmitry Tursunov (Sydney, Metz), Mikhail Youzhny (Chennai) and Igor Kunitsyn (Kremlin Cup).
If we compare the positions in the individual ATP classification at the beginning of 2008 and the current ranking, then most of our leading players have made significant progress in 11 months. Kunitsyn moved from 127th line to 44th, Tursunov - from 35th to 25th, Igor Andreev - from 34th to 19th, Marat Safin - from 57th to 29th.
For the girls, the main achievement was Maria Sharapova's victory at the Australian Open and the all-Russian podium at the Beijing Olympics - Elena Dementieva's gold, Dinara Safina's silver and Vera Zvonareva's bronze. Winning the Fed Cup for the fourth time in the last five seasons no longer caused as much emotion as, for example, in 2004 and 2005, when the French were beaten 3:2 in the finals. Now Spain has offered minimal resistance to Russia.
Due to a shoulder injury, Sharapova's season was disrupted, as she went on a winning streak of 18 matches in January and February. The title of the country's first racket went to Safina, who won four tournaments during the year. Dinara achieved the best result in her career in October, soaring to second place in the BTA ranking, and now she is third on this list.
During the season, the Russians, through the efforts of seven of the strongest tennis players, won 18 singles titles. Sharapova (Australian Championship, Doha, Amelia Island), Safina (Berlin, Los Angeles, Montreal, Tokyo), Dementieva (Dubai, Olympics, Luxembourg), Maria Kirilenko (Estoril, Barcelona, Seoul), Zvonareva (Prague, Guangzhou) distinguished themselves ), Nadezhda Petrova (Cincinnati, Quebec) and Anna Chakvetadze (Paris). In the current BTA classification, five of our girls are in the top 10 - Safina (3rd place), Dementieva (4th), Zvonareva (7th), Kuznetsova (8th) and Sharapova (9th). Petrova is located at the very border of the top ten.
True, it is impossible not to notice that after the May decision of Belgian Justine Henin to end her sports career, and in the rank of number one in the WTA, competition in world women's tennis has weakened significantly. It essentially came down to the rivalry between the Serbs Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, the Americans Serena and Venus Williams and a group of Russians. In addition, the injury-prone Williams sisters deliberately skip many tournaments, which makes their final result even more predictable.
The past season was marked by frequent changes in the leader of the individual rating. When leaving big sport, Enin acted more than nobly. She wrote a statement to the leaders of the BTA with a request to exclude her name from all current classifications. The title of the strongest player automatically went to Maria Sharapova, then Ivanovic replaced her, then the crown went to Yankovic. In August, Ivanovic regained the top position for a couple of weeks; during September, Serena Williams took the top spot, after which Jankovic again took the lead.