PLAYER
Perhaps we will give this nomination to Swiss Martina Hingis , who won the first category of the Pan Pacific Open tournament in Tokyo, having beaten Serb Anu Ivanovich in the final - 6: 4, 6: 2. The decisive argument in favor of Martina - she played not so badly in Australia either (defeat in the quarter-finals from Kim Clijsters) and found the strength to successfully perform at such a representative tournament. It seems that the words of Hingis, who returned to tennis a year ago, that the very possibility of playing at such a high level is already a great joy, is truly sincere. This is confirmed by a smile that never leaves Martina’s face, combined with a desire to fight for every point.
MATCH
The final game of the tournament in Zagreb between Ivan Lubicic and Marcos Baghdatis . Both tennis players did not perform very well at the first Grand Slam tournament of the season (Lyubichich completely failed him, losing in the first round) and hastened to rehabilitate themselves. Horvath hosted the match and had three set points with a score of 5: 4. But once again his nerves let him down: having failed to realize the advantage, Ivan lost the set in a tie-break. Psychology has become one of the main factors in the second set. Lyubichich was more focused on his presentation, forcing Bagdatis to be nervous, who once once with a bother kicked the ball with his foot on the podium to the audience. The winner was determined in the third decisive set. Lyubichich started it more confidently and had a good opportunity to make a break at the very beginning. But, again not holding the advantage, Ivan allowed the opponent to first level the game, and then make a victory break in the tenth game.
“I won because I acted better in difficult moments of the match,” Bagdatis said after the game. - Ivan was tense and therefore could not show his best game. I hope that this victory will not only help me forget the disappointment of the Australian Open, but also give strength for the next successes. At least I'm happy with my tennis. If I continue to play like that, you will hear about me more than once. ”
EVENT
The first racket of the world, Maria Sharapova, could not finish the semifinal match of the tournament in Tokyo with Ana Ivanovich due to a hamstring injury. The Russian woman lost to her opponent the first set with a score of 1: 6, and the second with a score of 1: 0 refused to continue the fight. “I am disappointed that I had to end the tournament like this,” said Sharapova. - I felt pain in the second game of the first set. I tried to continue the game, hoping that the pain would subside. In general, I felt some tension in my left leg since the Australian Open, but I was not too worried - after the Grand Slam tournament it seems that everything hurts. But still, the pain in the leg on the Tokyo court was unexpected, sharp, and was especially felt when I rested on my leg after completing the service. Now you have to take a week off from tennis. ”
EXPECTATION
The main event of the coming week should be the matches of the first round of the Davis Cup . The Russian team will play in the Chilean resort town of La Serena with the local team, whose leader is the finalist of the recent Australian Open Fernando Gonzalez. Our tennis players have been training together for several days, but not by the strongest team. Nikolai Davydenko and Mikhail Yuzhny took a short break in appearances for the national team in order to focus on individual tournaments. Marat Safin, Dmitry Tursunov, Igor Andreev and Teymuraz Gabashvili will defend the trophy won last year. The coach of our team Alexander Volkov promised to tell all the details of the preparation and the matches themselves on his blog - especially for the site “Sport Today”.
Andrey IVANTSOV