Tennis
Daniil Medvedev, new number one
(Acapulco) The misfortune of some is the happiness of others: by losing in the quarter-finals in Dubai, Novak Djokovic left his world No.1 crown to Daniil Medvedev, the Russian with a strong and uninhibited character, who will have to now come to terms with this new status.
He will not ascend the throne of the ATP until Monday officially, but already, Daniil Medvedev could already be delighted Thursday to have won his duel from a distance with Djokovic.
“It’s not easy to play a match when you learn that during the day,” said the Russian, who qualified for the semi-finals in Acapulco after his 6-2, 6-3 victory over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
At 26, he put an end to the domination of four giants: for the first time since 2004, the head of the ATP escaped from one of the members of the “Big 4”, namely Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal.
The native of Moscow will also find the Spaniard in the semis in Mexico, less than a month after their showdown in the Australian Open final which had turned in favor of the Majorcan in the 5thand set when Medvedev had led 2 sets to 0.
The Russian, crowned at Flushing Meadows five months earlier, had then missed his chance to become the first player in the Open era (since 1968) to win two first Grand Slam titles in quick succession.
But during his fortnight in Australia, he had also been able to extricate himself from a few perilous situations, proof of a new maturity.
“I was mad! »
It was a bit by accident that the slender Russian (1.98 m) found himself with a racket in hand at 9 years old. While taking him to a swimming lesson, his mother Olga came across an advertisement for tennis lessons and his father Sergey, an IT engineer, thought the idea of enrolling him there was a good one.
Little did he know, then, that the snowshoes would cost him dearly. Because, when things escape him, his son turns out to be a real ball of nerves.
“I was mad! “, he confessed to the newspaper The Team in 2019. “You can’t even imagine what I was like until I was 19… I don’t know where it came from, but around 10 I started messing around on the court. »
“I was screaming, crying, breaking racquets… Everything you can imagine, I was doing. I never liked being like that. From the age of 14, I could lose a lot of games because of this attitude. And after each defeat, I dwelled on it for a long time, ”he said then.
After studying physics, mathematics, then commerce, this fan of sports video games, in particular Fifa, ended up devoting himself entirely to tennis. And his parents with, since the family went to live with him in Antibes in 2014.
He was then 18 years old, joined the Elite Tennis Center in Cannes and met the man who is still his coach, the Frenchman Gilles Cervara.
tense middle finger
Medvedev was still an unknown in 2017, when he played his first Wimbledon and stood out there. Beaten to 2and turn, he throws coins at the foot of the chair umpire to challenge a decision.
But he ends up understanding that this attitude does not help him. Just before the 2019 United States Open, the Russian explains that he uses a mental trainer to help him channel himself. “Often it works. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a match where, all of a sudden, I’m going to completely freak out. »
It just happened at the US Open that year. Facing the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, he qualified under the boos of Louis Armstrong, after snatching his towel from the hands of a ball boy, throwing his racket towards his chair and stretching a middle finger in front of the camera. “Thank you all, the more you whistle at me, the more energy you give me,” he said.
“I was an idiot. I’m working to become a better man on the court,” he later apologized. The whistles will only stop in the final, a titanic fight finally lost against Nadal.
The ice chilled the fire in the veins of Medvedev, who also drew on the heavy defeat in the Australian Open final in February 2021 against Djokovic, then against Nadal this year, to turn a corner.
After stealing the place of N.1 from the first, he can take “(s)revenge” in Acapulco against the second. And show before the hour who is the new king.
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Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.
Arina Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios / Photo: © Christopher Pike / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka gave Australian Nick Kyrgios Russian sweets before the head-to-head match.
The exhibition meeting will take place on December 28 in Dubai.
– Thank you for the gift! Looking forward to tomorrow’s fun! — Kyrgios signed a photo with sweets on the social network.
The upcoming match was called “Battle of the Sexes”, which refers to the confrontation in 1973, in which Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in three sets – 6:4, 6:3, 6:3.
World number one Sabalenka is 27 years old. During her career, she won 21 WTA singles titles, including four Grand Slam titles. 30-year-old Kyrgios won seven tournaments and is now ranked 672nd in the ATP rankings, his highest position was 13th.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
Elina Avanesyan / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
Elina Avanesyan received Armenian citizenship, but she still has to repay her debt to her native country.
Recently, changes of citizenship in Russian women’s tennis have been happening surprisingly often. This is despite the fact that in this sport athletes can easily compete at international competitions. However, tennis players, and to a greater extent female tennis players, still continue to abandon Russia, guided by different goals.
The case with Elina Avanesyan received a rather unexpected continuation. The athlete who left for Armenia must now pay the Russian Tennis Federation (RFF) for failure to fulfill the contract, and this could become an extremely interesting precedent.
Showed promise while representing Russia
This year, five of our tennis players changed their citizenship. The country’s former first racket Daria Kasatkina now represents Australia, and the athlete left with a scandal, forgetting to thank her homeland. In addition to her, Maria Timofeeva, Polina Kudermetova and Kamilla Rakhimova decided to compete for Uzbekistan, and Anastasia Potapova for Austria. The last transition was quite unexpected, because Potapova always declared her love for Russia and often visited the country.
Most of these transitions happened literally in recent weeks and months, so it is too early to draw conclusions about the productivity of the change of citizenship. But Kasatkina hardly won in sports terms. Now she occupies 37th place in the world rankings and, according to the feelings, has lost a lot not only in results, but also in the quality of the game itself.
The situation with Elina Avanesyan burst into the public sphere in August last year. First, she changed the flag in her profile on the WTA website to Armenian, and then the native of Pyatigorsk herself confirmed the fact of the transition. At that time, she was in 58th place in the world rankings and generally showed some promise. She made her debut in senior Grand Slam competitions in 2022, qualifying.
In 2023 and 2024, Elina performed well at Roland Garros, both times making it to the fourth round of the tournament. This was a bid for a breakthrough, or at least gradual progress. Avanesyan also won the ITF W100 series tournament in Wiesbaden in 2023, which is currently her main success in her career.
Will such compensation become a trend?
After moving to Armenia, her results dropped sharply. A year and a half later, Avanesyan is only 118th in the world rankings. This was partly due to health problems, but even without them, the girl’s career was clearly not going uphill. And now Elina has another problem. The Armenian representative was ordered to compensate the losses of the Russian Tennis Federation (RFF) in connection with the failure to fulfill the sports training agreement.
— The FTR received a decision from the National Center for Sports Arbitration (NCSA), which on December 9, 2025 considered the case between the FTR and Avanesyan regarding the FTR’s compensation for losses in connection with Avanesyan’s failure to fulfill the sports training agreement. The NCCA considered the dispute for several months and ruled in favor of the FTR. The tennis player will be obliged to reimburse the FTR for the amounts of losses established by the NCSA, compensation from tennis income provided for in the sports training agreement, and other costs of the FTR, the FTR statement says.
The size of the payments is not disclosed, but it is hardly an insignificant amount. However, it’s not just about finances. Avanesyan’s story may become a precedent when athletes fleeing the country will be required to pay money for changing citizenship.
Now, following the example of the FTR, our other federations can follow the example of the FTR, which will necessarily prescribe the conditions for its termination in the agreement. And this, of course, has its own logic. Of course, no one will prohibit athletes from leaving the country, but such a step will become more responsible. So paying compensation seems like a reasonable option and fair to both parties.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
Russian tennis player Lyudmila Samsonova announced her engagement to her Italian coach Alessandro Dumitrache.
The athlete posted a photo on social media with an engagement ring, which she captioned: “A new chapter begins.” The tennis player also tagged her lover’s account. Samsonova and Dumitrake have been dating since 2020.
Samsonova is 27 years old. She won the WTA tournaments five times and reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2025. Samsonova ranks 17th in the world rankings.
Source: Sportbox
I am a sports journalist who has written for a number of Sportish. I have a background in journalism and have been writing since I was young. My main focus is sports news, but I also write about general news. I am currently working as an author at Sportish.
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