A PERSON
The main character of the tennis week was Elena Dementieva . Unfortunately, with a minus sign. Lena withdrew from the tournament in Indian Wells due to a stress fracture of her rib and now, according to her, she cannot sleep or even breathe normally. Getting injured is always a shame, but now it’s doubly hurt. Dementieva is very fond of Indian Wells and traditionally shows good results at the Pacific Life Open - for 6 years, Lena has won 20 victories in 26 matches and has offset the quarterfinals, two semifinals and the final. The final was just last year, which means that Dementieva will not be able to protect last year’s points and for the first time in 3 and a half years will leave the Top 10 women's ranking.
Return to the top ten Dementieva will be oh how difficult. Now the fight for the Top-10 is being fought by four young ambitious tennis players at once - Yankovich, Vaidishova, Chakvetadze and Safina. Patti Schnyder could no longer resist their onslaught: having not left the Top 10 since October 2005, the Swiss is now occupying an honorable 13th place in the ranking. We are spoiled and used to see in the top ten of at least four Russians, there were even five - Safina and Chakvetadze lit up in turn. Now you have to limit yourself to three. We hope, temporarily.
MATCH
Let the hero whom we will not see next week in Indian Wells be the hero here. Mikhail Yuzhny in the opening match lost to Argentine Jose Acasuso - 7: 6, 6: 4. For the second time, Akasuso goes to Mikhail when he has “critical” days. In 2005, in South, Madrid withdrew from the match due to injury. And now he could have taken off from fatigue. After all, for the third week in a row Southern plays in full-length mode (two finals in two weeks). Well, nothing, but rest for Miami. It is a pity that we will not see the next thriller with Nadal this week.
SURPRISE
The Argentine Guillermo Cañas , who devoted last year to disciplinary repentance for the use of doping, lost in the qualification of the Indian Wells tournament to the German Alexander Vasque in three sets. However, soon by the will of the lot he was returned to the main grid, replacing the injured Belgian Xavier Malissa. And the “Lucky Loser" did the incredible, beating Roger Federer in two sets - 7: 5, 6: 2! The Swiss lost for the first time since August 2006, having won by this moment 41 matches in a row and seriously trying on the record of the Argentine Guillermo Vilas - a winning series of 46 meetings. However, Kanyas defended the record of his famous compatriot, adding Federer (minor ankle injury) to the minor problems much more serious - his magnificent game.
RETURN
Exhausted by a chronic hip injury, but no less beautiful, Gustavo Kuerten makes another attempt to return to the tour. In 2005, after a hip operation, the legendary Brazilian already tried. Then it was more of an experiment - for the entire 2005 season, Guga, a three-time Roland Garros winner, played just two hard games in the US Open Now the intentions of the former first racket of the world, apparently, are more serious. This year, Gustavo has already been to hard drive in Las Vegas and applied with a wild card to Indian Wells, which he has not participated in since 2004. Well, all right, in Las Vegas he won only one meeting, and in Indian Wells he lost the opening match of Del Potro. The season has just begun, and 6 tournaments have already been played, which means that everything is in order with health so far, and this is important. Crop waiting on the soil beds.
A PHOTO
Masha Sharapova after the match with Michaela Krycek could not attend the press conference because of her poor health. But where reporters can be denied, sponsors cannot be denied. I had to go to the presentation of Canon and open a new line of digital cameras PowerShot. At the same time, Maria and Canon held the already-traditional Sharapova doubles competition.
THE WORDS
“The reason for my defeat lies in the field of psychology. I feel great in fights with other rivals, but when I go to court against Justine, I become completely different. To beat her, I need to do something with my brains,” Svetlana Kuznetsova after another loss Justine Henin-Ardenne.
Now the statistics of their personal meetings is 14: 1 in favor of Justine. For comparison - Sharapova, Petrova and Dementieva have at least 2 victories. And I really wanted Sveta to win in Doha, where she celebrated her only victory over the Belgian one three years ago.
NUMERAL
4 double mistakes of Maria Sharapova in a match with Michaela Krajicek. In one of the games, Maria led with an ace of 15: 0, and then made 4 doubles in a row. Goodbye game. Hello, break.
Usually the main supplier of doubles on a tour is Dementieva. But, judging by the statistics, Maria Sharapova really wanted to try on the yellow jersey of the leader. Problems with the filing began in Australia, and in Tokyo this figure has already exceeded all permissible norms: 17 doubles per match. The match against Krycek was double 11. But there is good news. In the first set with Krycek there were nine doubles, and in the second only two. And for the entire match with Deshi, Masha made only six doubles. Let's get on the mend.
Ksenia VITRYAK