Well, what, it would seem, is Svetlana Kuznetsova weaker than the Israeli Shahar Peer? Or Dinara Safina - Chinese On Li? Yes, and Elena Dementieva with Dmitry Tursunov could well be more successful in playing with Czech rivals - Nicole Vaidishova and Tomas Berdych. But in the end, none of our losers on Sunday took a set from their opponents.
Of course, for every defeat there are good reasons. And to prove them, you can parse any game by game. But watching the broadcasts of these matches from Australia left one general and unpleasant feeling - hopelessness. No matter how Safina tried to run across to Li, she was still more concentrated and accurate in the blows from the first minutes. No matter how Svetlana Kuznetsova tried to impose her game on Piir, the Israeli woman was still less mistaken and better served.
But there are always exceptions to the rules, and this is nice. Anna Chakvetadze, having beaten the Croatian Elena Kostanich Tosich today, entered the fourth round of the Grand Slam tournament for the second time in her career and once again proved the non-random advances that she was given after her victory at last year’s Kremlin Cup.
Having familiarized with the Chakvetadze grid, you can, of course, say: lucky. On the way to the twelfth racket of the tournament, not a single "seeded" opponent was caught. But if she were to lose, no one would say that there was a sensation.
So far, a 19-year-old Russian woman demonstrates very mature tennis in Melbourne: she makes a minimum of mistakes, and her statistics improve from game to game. In the next round, Anna will play with the eighth racket of the tournament Swiss Patty Schnyder.
Another interesting match awaits us tomorrow, which, however, many would not like to see. Any outcome of it will mean another loss in our ranks: Maria Sharapova and Vera Zvonareva will compete for reaching the quarterfinals. You can, of course, console yourself with a guaranteed place in the next round. But it is painfully good both tennis players play in Australia to donate one of them.
“Faith is very strong physically,” says Maria Sharapova. - She loves long pranks, and my task will be to act as efficiently as possible and not allow Zvonareva to impose her tennis on me. I think I can do it. With every match I feel better physically and psychologically and gradually come to the best shape. ”
But one important victory, even without going to court, Maria won today. After the defeats of Amelie Moresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova, it became clear that on January 29, after the Australian Open, Sharapova will be the first racket of the world, despite the outcome of her performance at the tournament.
Andrey IVANTSOV