On Tuesday, the real Kremlin Cup finally began. If on the eve of the audience watched mainly the last qualifying games, then on the second day of the week in the arena, that is, on the court, the stars left.
The first issue of the men's net was so stellar that everyone was even offended. Nikolai Davydenko’s debut was eagerly awaited, especially after he didn’t have a chance to participate in the semifinal confrontation with the Americans in the Davis Cup. They waited, however, for a match with a minimum number of games - twelve - even for a serious training session that was not very similar. Czech Jiri Vanek turned out to be not just a bad rival - a bad sparring partner, so Eduard Davydenko, Nikolai’s brother and coach, even appointed the latter an extra workout on Tuesday evening.
But not everyone was so easy. The fourth seeding number and the first - the foreign legion of the Kremlin Cup Fernando Verdasco his match against Daniele Bracciali spent to the limit. It turned out that the Spaniard came to Moscow with an untreated injury, but the status of prima did not allow him to simply refuse to speak.
Verdasco turned out to be a guy dyuzhim and won the first set 7: 6. In the second, everything went to a repeated tie-break, but at that moment, finally feeling the opponent’s weakness, Bracciali abruptly changed the game and, with the score 4: 4, realized his first break-point. 6: 4 in favor of the Italian in the second installment - and at that moment Verdasco realized that he did not have enough strength, even the last. Having lost the first game on his pitch, he refused to fight.
The Spaniard’s departure actually led to the fact that the men's Kremlin Cup finally turned into the Russian championship. The first three crops were given to Davydenko, Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Yuzhny, and Marat Safin, who in his starting match defeated the Frenchman Nicolas May, took the place of the fourth favorite instead of Verdasco - 6: 3, 6: 4.
In the women's net, one hindrance was also initially prepared for Russian tennis players, only the hindrance is much more serious - the first racket of the world Amelie Moresmo. Like other favorites - Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva - Moresmo will start his tournament path from the second round.
It is still difficult to say in what form the first four issues are now - they will enter the fight only on Thursday. But it is clear that Elena Dementieva is in the most difficult position. Last week, she was injured, withdrew from the next WTA tour and, according to her, would have missed this week, if not for the Kremlin Cup. “I love this tournament too much,” said Lena, “and I will play in front of the Moscow audience even with all my might.”
Meanwhile, in anticipation of the release of leading tennis players, the audience enjoys the matches of the first round, in which many strong players are also involved. In a stubborn battle on Tuesday morning, Elena Vesnina and the first racket of China Na Li met on the central court. The match, which developed according to all the laws of women's tennis, including 0: 5, played at the third hour ended in a victory for the young Sochi tennis player with a score of 13:11 in the tie-break. A little later, another performance was presented to the public by Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze. Mainly - Chakvetadze, who recently won her first tournament of her career. Anna confirmed that she was in great shape, confidently outperforming a more experienced opponent with a score of 6: 1, 6: 2.
ALEXANDER SHMURNOV, "Newspaper"