A PERSON
We will choose from ours - Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Justin Henin in Berlin, and Nikolai Davydenko took a set from Nadal in Rome. But Kuznetsova blurred the impression of a victory over the first racket of the world by an insulting defeat in the final, and therefore Kolya Davydenko was the main character. I would like to wish Nikolai good luck in Hamburg. There he will have to defend last year. But to reach the semifinals would also be very desirable. Semifinal again - and again Nadal. Maybe Kolya should try to do it on the second try?
MATCH
Nikolay Davydenko and Rafael Nadal . This beautiful and intense match became the pearl of the current dirt season also because no one expected such agility from Nikolai with his dubious achievements lately. And here's what happened - three sets, two tie-breaks, 17 breaks for two. Everyone remembers that the last match on the ground Nadal lost to Igor Andreev. It is so pleasant that the first set against Nadal in this unpaved season was also won by the Russian.
SENSATION
Filippo Volandri - the main outrage of last week. Not only did he beat obvious favorites of Gasquet and Berdych, so he offended Federer himself. Nothing sacred. Only the super-successful performance of Nikolai Davydenko prevented us from making the Italian the main person of the week. Still, to win against Nadal a set on the ground will probably be more honorable than Federer two.
RATING
Thanks to reaching the semifinals of Rome, Nikolai Davydenko returned to third place in the ranking again. True, no one has played so many tournaments in the Top 50 - 29, but this is not important. It is important that Nikolai is not losing ground. He again moved from third place to Andy Roddick. Andy, I suppose, is not offended - during the unpaved tournaments he will somehow survive this rating loss.
Mikhail Yuzhny repeated his personal record, again rising to 15th place in the world ranking. The last time Yuzhny was January 15th, 2005. In the event of a successful performance in Hamburg, Misha will have the opportunity to surpass his achievement, since last year he left the tournament after the first round. How successful Hamburg will be for Mikhail is a question, first of all, for Novak Djokovic, who is very likely to become a rival of the Russian in the third round match.
INJURIES
Two Ukrainians, Julia Vakulenko and Alena Bondarenko , withdrew from the last tournament in Berlin due to injuries. Two weeks ago, this sad fact would hardly have attracted our attention, but during these two weeks the Ukrainians managed to make a lot of noise. In Warsaw, Vakulenko beat the second “seeded” Kim Clijsters, but then withdrew from the match against Bondarenko because of an injury. And Bondarenko, after defeating Kuznetsova after that, reached the final in Warsaw. In Berlin, Bondarenko was injured first and simply did not have time to surprise anyone. And Vakulenko again beat the second “seeded", this time Moresmo, and after that upset our Dinara Safina as well. A remarkable fact is that both Ukrainians did not finish their matches in Berlin against Ana Ivanovich, the future winner of the tournament.
NUMBERS
During his victorious clay series, Rafael Nadal won 13 titles. The Spaniard won 75 % of the matches without giving a set. In 77 matches, Nadal beat 50 different opponents from 21 countries. 71 times he defeated right-handed rivals. A long list of those whom Nadal has offended at least twice during this time: Federer (5 times), Vligen (3), Koria (3), Ferrer (3), Gaudio (3), Berdych (2), Braciali (2) , Cañas (2), Djokovic (2), Ferrero (2), Gasquet (2), Gonzalez (2), Maliss (2), Monfils (2), Nieminen (2), Robredo (2), Zappi (2) , Stepanek (2), Volandry (2), South (2).
VIDEO
The most beautiful draws of the match Davydenko - Nadal.
THE WORDS
John McEnroe about Rafael Nadal: “This guy is incredible, on the ground he does everything he wants. He is very similar to Bjorn Borg, which he was at one time. " Let's see if the Spaniard will get the strength, like Bjorn Borg, to win six “Roland Garros” - four of them in a row.
Ksenia VITRYAK