The 2007 tennis year will begin next Monday with first matches at one of the four great championships - the Australian Open. These will be real big starts, while what is happening in the tennis world can not be compared even with racing qualifications, free sessions or warm-up laps. Someone trains at tournaments, someone prefers individual training, such as Roger Federer or almost all polls leaders in world women's tennis. And to take seriously the results of pre-Melbourne tournaments is simply naive. Although pleasant cannot be missed.
Even before the very first of the warm-up circles in Russia, a pretty trophy - the Hopman Cup - went. The traditional New Year competition of mixed teams composed of those who are not lazy has been held since 1989. Our team participated in Adelaide games three times in the early 1990s under the flag of the USSR and the CIS with the participation of Natalya Zvereva and in turn two Andreevs, Chesnokov and Cherkasov, and then four more times already in the 21st century thanks mainly to the goodwill of Marat Safin (he played in three tournaments, once with Elena Likhovtseva and twice with Anastasia Myskina).
True, the will, although good, was not too strong, and the Russian team could not ever get closer to the final. A year ago, such an outcome was clear in advance when it became known that a couple from the depths of the second hundred, Yuri Schukin, would make a couple of Svetlana Kuznetsova. But the current draw, judging by the composition, could be considered promising: after all, both Nadezhda Petrova and Dmitry Tursunov, who arrived this time in Adelaide to defend the Russian tricolor, are eminent tennis players. However, at first they had to doubt their motivation: in the opening meeting, the Russians lost to the Australians, losing both singles (respectively, Alicia Molik and Mark Filippusis) and prevailing only in a duet. It turned out that Petrov and Tursunov tried not in vain in a couple: two victories over the USA and France with a decent difference in parties allowed them to take first place in the group, after which, having already gained real motivation (a trophy is a trophy), Nadya and Mitya easily broke up in the final with the Spanish team consisting of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Tommy Robredo.
Then personal competitions began, and one of the five tournaments brought success to Dinara Safina, who confidently outplayed Martin Hingis in the final. Next door in another tiny tournament, Vera Zvonareva reached the finals, but in the decisive match she lost to Serbian Elena Yankovich in a bitter struggle. Young people spoke flatter, but their classes were more serious: still, for example, the millionth reception at the expense of Qatari sheikhs is not the pre-Melbourne tournaments of the fourth category. And the lineups were (except Federer) the most that there is, well, except that many only get in shape ... As a result, our leader Kolya Davydenko got only to the semifinals of that gathering in Qatar, and the rest did a bit of training in other parts. Only Marat Safin didn’t appear in public, who, by the way, doesn’t have such a habit: in 2004 and 2005, when Marat reached the finals of the Australian “helmet”, he started the season there, in Melbourne, ignoring how and now, all the warming circles. And without that it’s hot in Australia now ...
ALEXANDER SHMURNOV , "Newspaper"