TEAM
When the Russian team plays, there simply cannot be other heroes. And if she wins, all the more so. Still, the Davis Cup is an amazing phenomenon. So sometimes you want to escape from everyday hustle and bust out of reality for at least one weekend. You can, for example, leave the city for barbecue. You can fall on the couch and for the tenth time purposefully review all Star Wars. But the Davis Cup for such cases is definitely the best that was invented by mankind.
MATCH
You have to choose between the games of the South and Safin. Let it be Safin - if only because he brought a decisive point. But not only so. Safin not only won, he again lit hearts with hope. Of course, hope is no longer the caliber that it was, say, three years ago. Tears come right when you suddenly realize that the 27-year-old Marat already does not have enough time and energy to become the first racket of the world again ... Well, to hell with her, with the first racket - but Big helmets are at our service. Come on, Marat, the stars finally. You can - we saw yesterday.
AWARDS
Many sports awards are very fond of tennis players, but the Laureus Award is especially fond of. Indeed, the jury has a powerful tennis lobby in the person of John Mackinaw, Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles. It’s hard to remember the year when tennis players wouldn’t get anything at the Laureus Award, and there wouldn’t be enough fingers for the nominees.
This year, three immediately received the award. Federer for the third year in a row grabbed the main prize "Best Athlete of the Year". Well, Federer okay - he will win this prize even in the intergalactic competition. But with Serena Williams, who was given the “Return of the Year”, it turned out strange: after all, the results of 2006 are taken into account, and Serena returned only in 2007. Apparently, just could not pass by.
For the "Best Athlete of the Year" a serious fight broke out. Three were immediately nominated from tennis - Moresmo, Henin and Sharapova, that is, all winners of the Grand Slam tournaments of last season. As a result, Elena Isinbaeva won. Overcoming the five-meter height is only comparable with the flight of Squirrel and Strelka to the Moon, and it is surprising that Isinbayev was moved to the prizes for two whole years. And these with some kind of Big helmets - nothing, wait.
TITLES
Last week in Amelia Island, her first tournament was won by Russian Frenchwoman Tatyana Golovin , and she managed to do this only on the fourth attempt. It is very symbolic that Tatyana won the final against Nadezhda Petrova. For Petrova Golovin is traditionally a very uncomfortable rival: now the result of their meetings is 5: 1 in favor of the Frenchwoman. And so far Nadezhda won the only victory just in the final - in Stuttgart in 2006. It's no secret that Nadia herself went to the “apprentice” for a very long time - she won her first title only in the fifth final. And then in Stuttgart she admitted: "I know how difficult it is to win my first title, and that is what helped me defeat Golovin today." Now Tatyana finally succeeded.
TRENDS
Nadezhda Petrova, after losing the final, continued the sad Russian tradition of not defending last year’s titles . The only Russian top tennis player who managed to defend the title is Maria Sharapova. True, it was in “small” Tokyo and in Birmingham, and these are tournaments of only the third category. Well, if you take a chance and call the current tennis player Anastasia Myskina, then she will be ahead of the rest of Russia: Nastya once managed to defend Moscow and Doha.
FAILURES
Nadezhda Petrova will not be able to defend the title at the tournament in Charleston, which starts this week. It is not known why Hope refused. It seems to be due to preparations for the match of the Federation Cup with the Spaniards. Strange, last year the Federation Cup with the Belgians did not stop Nadezhda from winning Charleston before and Berlin in the final against Justin Henin after.
It’s even a pity that Hope will not go to Charleston . The tournament, which initially gathered the strongest squad, suddenly turned pale a few days before the start. Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Amelie Moresmo, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Martina Hingis refused to participate. So Petrova would have good chances, even considering her not the best form, to reach at least the finals in order to protect more points. And in the finale, perhaps, there would be an opportunity to check the soil readiness of Serena Williams, who, together with her sister, honored the tournament with their presence.
And so, without arriving in Charleston, Nadezhda had already lost 300 points and dropped to 9th place in the ranking. And if Serena reaches the quarter finals, and Dinara Safina reaches the finals, which is quite realistic, Petrova will fly out of the top ten altogether - and this is after last year’s third place in the ranking. Outrage.
RESULTS
ATP summed up the first quarter of the season. Guillermo Cañas made the biggest leap in the ranking, rising 114 points. Our Eugene Korolev with his "34" takes the honorable ninth place in this list of "impruvers". Juan Martin Del Potro - 18 years and 6 months - is recognized as the youngest teenager in the first hundred of the rating. The most senior among the teenagers of the first hundred are Novak Djokovic (# 7) and Andy Murray (# 11), both 19 years and 10 months old. The greatest number of matches for the season was won by the same Djokovic - 24 with a minimum of 5 meetings lost. He shares the first place with Lyubichich by the number of finals - by 3. He shares the first place with Federer and Maliss by the number of titles - by 2.
VIDEO
If anyone has not seen the Safin - Mathieu match, they can watch this miraculous mix - Marat won this way.
THE WORDS
Shamil Tarpishchev is in a state of euphoria: “Immediately after the victory over Mathieu he said to him:“ Marat, this was your best match in the last 10 years! ”Yes for you, Shamil Anvyarovich, at least twenty. True, then Tarpishchev recovered and said that "the best with US Open-2000." But still - such words are worth a lot.
NUMBERS
14 years and 3 months. It was at this age that the beginning tennis player from Portugal, Michel Larcher de Brito, won her first official match in the main draw of the WTA tournament (rival Meghan Shaunessi). On the one hand, this is not such an important event. And on the other hand, maybe this match marks the birth of a new star. Having won at such a young age, Michel got into the secret list of the “youngest”, with which, by the way, began Mary-Joe Fernandez, Jennifer Capriati, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis, Tracy Austin, Gabriela Sabatini and Monica Seles. To the question of probability theory, there are only two tennis players on this list who have not managed to develop their early success.
Ksenia VITRYAK