PERSONS
Usually, large stars flaunt on the front page of our review. Today we will talk about small stars, especially since they definitely deserve it.
A month ago, Yaroslav Shvedov won her first WTA tournament. True, it was just a fourth-category tournament in Bangalore, but you have to start somewhere. And having started - continue. Yaroslav continued: in Miami, for the first time in her career, she reached the third round of the tournament of the first category and for the first time beat the tennis player from the Top 20, and in two sets. The 12th “seeded” Ana Ivanovich became the innocent victim of a 19-year-old Muscovite.
Agnieszka Radwanska , although she still has no titles, can be called more experienced. They talked about Agnieszka last year - after her victory over Anastasia Myskina in Warsaw. Then Nastya explained her unexpected defeat by the fact that she was not ready for such a mature game performed by a 16-year-old rival. In the same 2006, Agnieszka managed to visit the fourth round of Wimbledon and upset Dementieva and Venus Williams to the heap. And yesterday, a young Polish woman knocked out the fifth “seeded” Martina Hingis from a fight in Miami.
It is a pity that we will not see the full-time confrontation between Agnieszka and Yaroslav in Miami - yesterday the Russian woman lost to the experienced Italian Tatyana Garbin. But we can see Agnieszka in the case against Svetlana Kuznetsova. To do this, Radwan needs to beat the same Garbin.
MATCH
Justin Henin - Virginie Razzano . Yesterday, the fate of Justine Henin hung in the balance. Usually, if it comes to the third set, Justine either leads with a comfortable advantage, or contrives at the very last moment to make a break (7: 5). The tie-break in the third set for the Belgian is the rarest exception to the rule. This has happened only twice in the last three years - in matches with Anastasia Myskina. And yesterday, Justine’s rival was not at all Myskina, but the 71st racket of the world Virginie Razzano. As they say, feel the difference and draw conclusions. The next rival of Henin will be Vera Zvonareva, on the eve of beating the heroine of last week in two sets, Daniel Hantuhov. With this game, Justine, Vera has some chances. True, it is better not to bring to a tie-break in the third set - in this situation, Justine has not lost for 5 years.
THE LOSS
Tennis players, it turns out, are also people. You rarely recall this. For example, when Justin Henin is removed from the Australian Open due to family problems. This time, Amelie Moresmo gave occasion. Speaking in Miami, Amelie was not prevented by injury, but by banal appendicitis - is it not a shame? And it will be even more offensive if Kim Clijsters reaches the semifinals. In this case, Amelie will drop in fifth place. For the Frenchwoman, this is actually a reference - she was in fifth place for the last time in 2003.
LOSERS
After Elena Yankovich made a fuss at the US Open-2006, and Fernando Gonzalez put on the ears of the Australian Open-2007, these two began to expect great achievements and heroic victories. And they are all marking time. Or even worse.
With a certain degree of conventionality, we can say that after the US Open, Elena Yankovich never lost to tennis players who are not in the Top 20. From the match against Olga Puchkova (49), Jankovic withdrew due to injury. The same injury helped her to earn a technical defeat from Anna Chakvetadze, who in October last year took 26th place in the ranking. Losing the Australian Open-2007 Serena Williams, then still the 81st racket of the world, also, as you know, does not count. But in Miami, Jankovic has already lost for real - Mara Santangelo. Number 36th.
And Fernando Gonzalez is not doing well. After Australia, Gonzalez first lit up the dirt tournament in Viña del Mare. The Chilean, most likely, considered this tournament as preparation for the Davis Cup matches with the Russians, so he did not strain much and lost to Albert Montanes in the quarterfinal. But his loss to Igor Andreyev in the Davis Cup itself really surprised everyone. It seems that Fernando himself was seriously surprised - so much so that he fell out of the tournament life for as much as a month. Gonzalez appeared on Indian Wells with particular impatience, but Fernando did not show any punches and in the 4th round without options lost Tommy Haas. And in Miami, Fernando was already completely uninteresting to lose to Paul-Henri Mathieu. Yes, Mathieu is a serious opponent, but still some kind of the wrong calico ...
OUR FAILURES
A familiar picture: the honor of Russian male tennis Nikolai Davydenko again protects alone. Kunitsyn lost to Meyer, Andreev didn’t pass Kuerri, Tursunov missed the “qualifier” Bolelli, Korolev made a fool of himself in the match in Nieminen, Gabashvili did not stand up against Yuzhny, Yuzhny himself did not reach Nadal because of Del Potro, and Safin ... Eh, Safin ...
ROBIN IS NOT GOOD
Round Robin rested in peace . After the scandal in Las Vegas with the participation of James Blake and Eugene Korolev, the leadership of the Asia-Pacific Region decided to abandon the round robin system. Everything was already breathed a sigh of relief, but ATP President Etienne de Villiers was not satisfied: "We will look for another way to modernize men's tennis." Mr. President, stop inventing bicycles!
VIDEO
Miami tournament promotional video for Sony Ericsson.
STARS ABOUT YOURSELF
Maria Sharapova talks about her communication abilities in a blog and simultaneously demonstrates a sense of humor.
“At parties I’m a little shy when it comes to introducing myself. It’s unusual for me to be the first to start a conversation, unless I feel that a great future awaits me with a guy standing on the other side of the hall ...”
"Do not get me wrong, I have no problems communicating ... It’s worth starting a conversation and it’s hard to stop me!"
"Chasing Orlando Bloom to take a photo with him ... It took a lot of time, because he constantly paced around the room and talked with everyone ... A great example of a person with outstanding communication skills ... Maybe I will hire him to get me into this. "
THE WORDS
“It’s hard to say if I can be in New York this year (US Open). I assure that I will definitely perform at the tournament in Luxembourg in September and in Stuttgart in October. These two tournaments will be the last in my career. And then I I’ll start a new life that I ’ve been waiting for so long, "- Kim Kleisters continues to accompany himself on the last journey.
NUMBERS
The score of the match Eugene Korolev vs Jarkko Nieminen - 0: 6, 0: 6 . No comments.
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Ksenia VITRYAK