Tsurenko’s alarms, Alcaraz again first, Svitolina announced the return date

Tennis, traditionally held in California for the best athletes, has come to an end in the first half of March. In one of the most prestigious tournaments of the season, Indian Wells, the fans felt very different emotions. Unfortunately for us, there were more negative ones. Acute conflict situations have contributed to the tennis community learning some unorthodox internal moments to vocalize for fans in such an extremely closed sport.

WTA 1000 Indian Wells

The “fifth big” performance of the Ukrainians was very successful in places. Unfortunately, after winning her first WTA title, Marta Kostyuk could not fully recover, so she lost in the first match. Marta competed in three sets against Rebecca Peterson, who had gained momentum from the qualifying round before. As a result, the Swede became more persistent, did not stop there and advanced to the fourth round, losing to 19-year-old American Corey Gauff. Marta also played in doubles, but immediately lost to Lyudmila Kichenok and Alena Ostapenko. In the next round, Luda lost to future finalists Beatrice Haddad Maia and Laura Siegemund, which did not prevent her from updating her national success in the doubles rankings.

The first racket of Ukraine, Angelina Kalinina, was seeded and started immediately in the second round. The leader of Ukrainian tennis was challenged by Linda Frugvirtova, one of the tour’s most famous teenagers and by far the best under-18 tennis player. Initially, Angelina didn’t do much, but her opponent didn’t show stable tennis that day either. Moral-willed Kalinina managed to win with match points. Before the next match with Maria Sakkari it was hard to believe in the victory of Ukraine, she. Still, Angelina took the first set and, after losing the second, looked no worse than the seventh racket in the world. However, in the tenth game of the final game, Kalinina’s serve failed by making three doubles in one match against Sakkari, which was a great gift for her opponent. The Greek, meanwhile, was inspired by this victory and eventually beat Czechs Kvitova and Pliskova to advance to the semi-finals. Only a stronger opponent, Arina Sobolenko, managed to stop one of the best athletes of the tour.

The performance of Lesya Tsurenko was the richest in terms of events. She started qualifying this year with no problems, confidently. There were also victories at the base against two tennis players who had previously beaten our old first racket. In the first round, Lesya avenged Chinese Zhu Lin for her defeat in the final of the competition in Hua Hin in early February of this year. Second – Tsurenko managed to beat Donna Vekic, who won for the Croatian in the match, which she had to withdraw in Monterrey. This fight was most remembered when Vekic did not want to shake hands with the Ukrainian at the end of the meeting. The reason was more or less obvious, because during the meeting Lesya often showed that she had some kind of health problem and still won. Those who watch Tsurenko’s matches often understand what is at stake. The most striking example is the match against Marketa Vondrousova in the 1/4 final game of the US Open 2018. But everything has to happen for a reason, and we soon learned that.

The fact is that even before this match, Lesya spoke with WTA CEO Steve Simon and told him that “he himself does not support the war, but if players from Russia and Belarus do, then it’s just his own ideas and other people’s opinions should not upset the Ukrainian.” Simon also expressed confidence that Russians and Belarusians will return to the Olympics. It’s surprising that after that, Tsurenko was able to go out and play at a high level. Throughout the grid, there was maximum trigger in the form of Arina Sabolenko, who played on the same hockey team as her husband Lukashenka, and together they signed a letter in support of the mustache strongman. It was clear that Tsurenko would not come to this final match. Lesya said that it was a panic attack, or rather, a tantrum. His decision is easy to understand, even the world’s first racket Iga Sviontek expressed it. Remarkably, the recording of this press conference did not appear on the tournament’s YouTube channel. But Medvedev and Sobolenko had words on how much they worried about the world and how much they had done. It’s very interesting to learn more about their incredible support for world peace.

Also this week, the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine was of the opinion that Ukrainian tennis players should avoid tournaments in which athletes from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus play. It sounds nice and patriotic, but in practice it will look like the legendary Tyson Fury uppercut. It’s a mystery what our officers think. Obviously, if Ukrainians had the option to play tournaments with or without the Russians, then no one (other than those in the last weekly review) would be interested in them in the same field. If the coach of the 11th racket of the world considers Putin the best politician of the 21st century, and also expresses his very important opinion that “Europe must kneel” even in personal conversations [перед русскими]”, then it is unlikely that enough people would want to have anything in common with such moral freaks. Here I would like to quote our colleague Maxim Gaptar, who has been defending Ukraine at the front since last summer: “Most Russian athletes are the same cannibals as their military leadership.” This is already an axiom, more and more canned food is opened every day. The last example is the appearance of Anastasia Potapova on the shirt of the football club Spartak for the match against Jessica Pegula. Win – did not win, but burned the Gazprom logo, for which he received a warning from the WTA.

Ukrainian officials need to understand the realities of what is going on, the decision not to let their own decisions kill our tennis. If that’s exactly what Mr. Gutzeit was aiming for, his statement makes sense.

Returning to the events on the field, I would like to remember that Dayana Yastremskaya at Indian Wells was not as bad as last time. Having again a wild card at her base, the Ukrainian transformed her by defeating the mighty Hungarian Anna Bondar in the first round. Then there was Barbora Kreychikova, who got in shape, and Dayana had no chance in this confrontation. We also watched the match of Katarina Zawatskaya, who lost to the Ukrainian-German tennis player Eva Lys in the qualifying semi-finals.

As for other tennis players, the world’s first racket, Iga Sviontek, who topped the world rankings for 50 weeks in a row, was on his way to the next championship, but stumbled again in the semi-finals. Via Elena Rybakina, who defends the colors of Kazakhstan. Polka said that this time he played with an injury and it was a new experience for him in this stadium. The final in California is a repeat of the Australian Open championship game that took place less than two months ago. If anyone is suddenly interested in the result, Rybakina won this match for the first time.

ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells

The men on the American courts were absent from Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, so surprises were to be expected. It’s the first time two Americans have reached the quarterfinals at the same time in 15 years, this year it was Taylor Fritz and Francis Tiafoe. The latter even managed to make it to the top four and promised to no longer award prizes to tennis players of the same age, but lost in the semi-finals to the slightly more experienced Daniil Medvedev. Stefanos Tsitsipas, number three in the ATP rating, left the tournament early, while Hubert Hurkach and Holger Rune also closed the rackets early. French Gael Monfils did not return to the field very successfully, losing to Russian Alexander Shevchenko in the second week’s Challenger in Phoenix. Moreover, Monfils hugged him after the match. After that try to prove Steve Simon wrong.

In the title game at Indian Wells, 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz outstripped Medvedev and, with great nuance, regained world number one status. Although Djokovic won’t be playing in Miami due to a lack of vaccinations, the Carlitos must retain last year’s title in Florida before the clay season begins. The task is incredibly difficult but if you want to wear a tennis crown, play like a king.

Interestingly, Alcaraz is the third junior to have played in at least three Masters finals. Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev had the same number at age 20, and Rafael Nadal was seven. As for Rafa, his Academy, together with the ITF and FTU, has launched a project this year where 100 Ukrainian tennis players can train at his academy in Mallorca.

Svitolina announces return

Monfils has returned from injury and plans to appear in court for the first time since his wife went on maternity leave. It was learned on Friday that the former third racket in the world has chosen to return to the WTA 500 competition, which will be held in Charleston in early April. In addition to the return itself, the Ukrainian planned to organize a charity event with the organizers – a special Tennis Games for Peace Pro-Am tournament in support of Ukraine and the Elina Svitolina Foundation. A similar event last year raised $100,000 to help our country. It is curious that Elina last played in Charleston 9 years ago.

The squads of the Ukrainian and Czech Republic national teams for the Billie Jean King Cup match have been announced

In mid-April, the Ukrainian team will again try to enter the final stage of the Billie Jean King Cup, but the chances are illusory. We played with the Americans at this stage last year and almost caused a mega-sensation. This time you will have to do something on approximately the same scale and maybe even more. Marta Kostyuk, Dayana Yastremska, Katarina Zawatskaya and Lyudmila Kichenok will face the Czech Republic in a so-called home match to be played on clay courts in Turkey.

We will face Barbora Krejcikova, winner of Roland Garros 2021, Marketa Vondrousova, finalist of Roland Garros 2019, Linda Noskova, winner of junior Roland Garros 2021, and Karolina Muchova, finalist of the WTA clay tournament in Prague. In pairs, Kreychikova will play with Katerina Sinyakova – this is currently the strongest duet in the world, having won nine Grand Slam tournaments together, two of them on the ground. Oh yes, Indian Wells also won. Therefore, in three weeks we will talk about our luck, suddenly something will change for the better.

Meet Alisa Baranovskaya

After the wonderful performance of Yulia Starodubtseva two weeks ago, this time we have another hope for the future – 17-year-old Alisa Baranovskaya from Kiev. Alisa reached the 15,000th ITF semi-finals in her second professional tournament, which is good news. Baranovskaya was previously the champion of Ukraine, played in various youth teams of the national team and was the best in the European ranking among players under 14 years old. We’ll be watching his success in adult tennis more closely now.

Challenger tournaments and other ITF competitions

Ilya Marchenko made it to the semi-finals of Challenger for the first time in a long time. It happened in Mexico. In the fight for the final ticket, Ilya lost to the famous Frenchman Benoit Per, whom he had already beaten this year. Marchenko has not played at this stage for nearly two years. Vitaliy Sachko reached the quarterfinals for the first time this season at the Challenger in Lugano. In the same tournament, Alexei Krutykh was stopped in the second round.

Daria Snigur performed well in the Czech Republic at 60,000th place. In the competition in Trnava, she stopped one step before the final and lost to the Czech Lucija Gavlichkova. Daria has not yet played the final this year.

In India’s 25k, Vladislav Orlov and Eric Vanscheilboim are in the top eight, while Alexander Ovcharenko won two matches for the first time in a long time.

curiosity of the week

Czech tennis player Jiri Legechka did not sell a beer in Phoenix, where she played Challenger. The fact is that in Arizona they do not sell beer to people under the age of 21, and Legechka, 21, who showed all the available documents with a photo, was unable to prove that he did not violate the law.

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