The ATP website clearly underestimates the tournament in St. Petersburg, preferring to praise Roger Federer, who has won dozens of titles for the third year in a row. Meanwhile, the event is outstanding, and not only for our latitudes. As you know, the tennis year ends with a review of the top eight in Shanghai, and those who take places from 6th to 10th in the race have much more desire to get to China than Federer and Nadal. No matter what they say about relentless motivation. So the attention at the St. Petersburg tournament should be paid primarily to Tommy Robredo - the Spaniard is just the most problematic, eighth in the ranking. Gonzalez and Baghdatis breathe in the back of the head, and Nikolay Davydenko, the first “seeded” and unconditional favorite of SPb Open, shines from fifth place with a beacon. If Robredo in a full-time confrontation bypasses Nicholas, this will add to him not only points, but also psychological confidence in Shanghai. And vice versa: Davydenko should not lose to a lower competitor.
The end of the season will be decorated not only with the Chinese “battle of the giants”, but also with the Davis Cup men's finals. And here the St. Petersburg tournament is also an indicator.
Davydenko, Tursunov and Yuzhny will perform in front of the public, which expects them to not only have a successful performance in the current competition, but also to triumph in December Moscow. And only a confident game in St. Petersburg will brighten up the fans (and first of all - the tennis players themselves and their coaches) waiting for the arrival of the Argentine national team. There is a special motivation. Of particular interest is Mikhail Yuzhny, who in a recent interview called SPb Open “a serious tournament in contrast to the“ party “Kremlin Cup”, and indeed he feels extremely comfortable in this city. Evidence of this is at least the draw of the tournament, where Yuzhny joked off all the questions and most of the time acted as ... translator Robredo. A positive St. Petersburg result will undoubtedly increase Mikhail’s chances to reach the Davis Cup final in the familiar to us image of an unbending fighter.
There is a scandalous episode in the beautiful story of SPb Open-2006 (high motivation of individual players, watching the Russian team). Marat Safin refused to participate in the tournament, considering the amount proposed by the organizers insufficient even to "get out of his chair." Marat was offered to rise to his feet for a six-figure number, according to tournament director Mikhail Rydnik. That is, at least 100 thousand in undisclosed currency. Maybe it’s really a matter of money: Marat honestly admitted in his “Kremlin” blog that he “gave everything to a pretty architect”. But surely, a performance in St. Petersburg would be more successful and useful for Safin than a defeat from the direct opponent in the Cup of Davis Nalbandian in the Madrid quarterfinal. Before the Cup final, Marat is going to play in Lyon and Paris, but it is unlikely that the French results will be able to block the way to the final in his homeland.
After the tournament in St. Petersburg, both global and purely Russian alignments will change. The last chance for Shanghai for top tennis players will be Paris, and Shamil Tarpishchev will determine the leaders of the team and compose a cup pair. All attention to the court!
Ivan Kalashnikov