There was a full house in the restaurant hall. Although nothing interesting happened. After all, the tennis draw is different from, say, football. The stress is much less. And almost no intrigue. It was known in advance that Davydenko was the first number of the Russian team, and Safin was the second. They knew that Tursunov and Yuzhny were declared for the pair match, but the composition of the duet can be changed several hours before the match.
The main question was who will play the first meeting - on Friday, at 13 o’clock. Marat Safin really did not want to go to court first. And he was lucky. First, Davydenko and Chela will play. However, it is not clear whether Davydenko was lucky. He competed with this Argentinean five times and always lost.
There were a lot of welcome words. Marat Safin frankly missed. He took out his mobile phone and sent someone an SMS. Then he turned on the camera and began to shoot a video. He pointed the lens at the lying photographers, at the prize salad bowl, at the partners. Mikhail Youzhny immediately began to pose. Metering pending click Dmitry Tursunov.
“Calm down,” Marat told him. - I'm shooting a video.
Tursunov calmed down. But then he remembered something, took out his phone from his pocket and showed Marat some kind of picture. Looked and Southern. Everyone began to laugh.
When the officials attending the draw were announced, tennis players behaved differently. Marat Safin respectfully clapped Polina Deripaska, who represents the Russian tennis federation (they are often found at various unsportsmanlike parties). And the Argentines for some reason did not greet the head of their federation. And with this a little dumbfounded an elderly man who spoke with the same intonation that Leonid Brezhnev had in his worst years.
Commenting on the results of the draw, Safin suddenly announced that he hoped to identify the winner in two days. His partners revived again, and captain Shamil Tarpishchev clutched his head (it seemed, not in horror).
Nikolai Davydenko was systematically infuriated.
- Will the wedding on Saturday become a psychological dope for you? - one of the journalists was interested.
Tennis player threw up his hands:
- What do you always remember about this wedding?
“Be patient,” Tursunov whispered to him.
It should be noted that a special program of events has been prepared for journalists covering the match. Argentine reporters for a long time could not believe in the reality of an invitation to a buffet reception, which will be held ... in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Evgeni Kafelnikov was noticeably late for the draw. The former leader of Russian tennis is very stout and is now unlikely to withstand a couple of games of a serious game. He refused the interview, explaining that he could not say anything new about tennis.
Alexey Shevchenko