Non-Russian final

Wimbledon is already over for Russian fans

Wimbledon tournament, by all rules, should end on the weekend. But for Russian fans, it ended last Thursday, when a kind of Russia-USA match was lost by us 0:2. Someone played - the first four women's rackets of the world, crosswise: Dinara Safina (1st place in the world ranking) against Venus Williams (3rd) and Serena Williams (2nd) against Elena Dementieva (4th) . True, two full-fledged semi-finals did not work out. Venus took Dinara off the court in less than an hour, with a score so indecent that you don’t want to reproduce it. Safin is a human pity, for less than a month she is the leader of the world ranking! - she failed miserably in two matches: the Paris final with Kuznetsova, but there was at least the appearance of a struggle, and this meeting with her opponent, whom she beat quite recently, in Rome, at the same tournament stage. However, that was on the ground ... (The weeping Dinara herself, however, will not nod at her unloved surface: “By our game with Venus, the grass on the back line of the Center Court was already so trampled that I had to run on natural land.”) But Dementieva's match with Williams Jr. was not even the decoration of the tournament, but perhaps the most spectacular game in the world of women's tennis over the past few years. For example, in nine times, since 2001, at least one of the Williams sisters reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, which later turned out to be an automatic pass to the final. Our first Grand Slam winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov said at that time about the chances of the sisters' rivals: “Looking at all this is not interesting. No matter how the tournaments turn out, one of the Williams always wins, and everyone else, no offense to them, just travels. It is clear that their permanent victories annoyed everyone. “We, Russian coaches, were sometimes visited by a feeling of powerlessness: these are two unmistakable machines! - said the famous Soviet tennis player, and then coach Olga Morozova. “It was simply impossible to fight the sisters in their optimal condition. It’s not good to say that, but one could hope for their temporary ill health.” Illness is different - Serena Williams has been losing weight in recent years. And more often in the direction of increase. But as soon as she loses a little weight... The Wimbledon format is perfect for this: in the first week you get slimmer through games with easier opponents, and when more skillful ones start to come across, you are almost in shape. Well, let’s get to the semi-final... On the eve of this game, Morozova, who at one time coached, albeit not for long, Dementieva (“Lena always conquered me with her perseverance and endurance, continuing to fight, for example, in the Australian heat, where others fell like flies on fly”), said that in vain Serena is considered the undoubted favorite: “If Lena shows her best tennis even against the best tennis of Williams, then it’s not at all clear who wins.” And they both heard her. Dementieva fluttered around the court, not just parrying Williams' killer blows, but circling Serena in response with such grace that she was wasted chopping the air with her racket. Lena took the first set, led in the second, was very close to the final victory, but one of the American's almost hopeless balls invisibly hooked the line - it was not even the judge who saw it, but the "hawkeye", a video camera. And the line did not accept the same ball from Lena by the same millimeter ... Dementieva will survive this too, she will put pressure on almost the entire third set, and she will have a match ball ... But this great and terrible Serena Williams, even losing and even when she's really behind in the game, she still behaves on this Center Court, which has already brought her five top titles, just like at home in the warm-up area in Palm Beach Gardens. And even the net cable, obeying the hostess, played a couple of times in her favor...

PHOTO FROM THE SITE NEWSPOT.RU