Sventek and Alcaras titles, Oleinikova’s award, sensational Serb in Bosnia

The penultimate week of April tennis came to an end, where Ukrainian tennis players failed to please our fans in the ATP and WTA tournaments. But the Ukrainians had a great week at ITF level and even won a few titles. The most prestigious tournaments were held in Stuttgart (WTA 500 women), Barcelona (ATP 500 men), Banja Luka and Munich (ATP 250 men).

WTA 500 Stuttgart

Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska qualified for the indoor clay tournament in Germany. However, he obviously failed in performances. Dayana finished participating in these competitions in the first round of the selection, losing to Katie Volynets, who was far from being a clay lover in three matches. It is also worth noting that Yastremska won the first set, and in the second set the score was 3: 1, and in the 10th game there was match points and a tie-break.

None of the Ukrainians attended the base, the leaders of our women’s tennis, Angelina Kalinina and Marta Kostyuk, took leave a week before the tournament in Madrid.

The championship in the competition was won by the world’s first racket, Iga Sventek, for whom this tournament was the first dirt tournament of the season. Iga successfully defended the trophy it won last year, and also took home a new Porsche (the organizers of the competition work closely with the owners of the company). Interestingly, in the final, polka defeated Arina Sobolenko, with whom she also played in the championship game last year. This is Iga’s second title in 2023.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Iga Sventek

ATP 500 Barcelona / ATP 250 Munich / ATP 250 Banja Luka

The birthplace of clay masters opened its doors to the clay season with competitions in Barcelona. The second racket of the world, Carlos Alcaras, came to Spain to defend the trophy, which he successfully coped with. In the final, Carlitos confidently defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas, giving his 4th defeat in 4 personal matches. Carlos also walked confidently on the grid, winning all 10 sets. For the 19-year-old Spaniard, this is his 8th and 3rd career title this season.

It is worth noting that Ukrainian male tennis player Oleksiy Krutykh also participated in the tournament held in Barcelona. The Ukrainian player qualified for the eliminations by defeating Zekic and Grenier, but faced the country representative 404 Pavel Kotov, whom he lost in three matches in the 1/32 final, and won the first one in a tie-break.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. carlos alcaraz

The championship was successfully defended in Munich, Stuttgart and Barcelona. 19-year-old Dane Holger Rune regained the trophy in an epic final against Botik van de Zandshulp. Rune confidently made it to the final, but was burned there by two timeouts of 2:5 (15:40) in the third set. However, Holger made an incredible comeback and scored 2 more game points in Game 12, taking the tie-breaking victory.

Video review of the Holger Rune v Botik van de Zansshulp match:

The tournament, held in Banja Luka, Bosnia, ended unexpectedly. Who would have thought that world number 70 Dusan Lajovic, who won the only trophy of his career at Umag in 2019, could win a championship on these courts? During the tournament, the 32-year-old Serbian player, in addition to defeating Andrey Rublev in the final, also defeated the leader of the ATP rating, Novak Djokovic, in two sets! Dusan won the 2nd championship in his career and the 1st championship of the season.

Cup Oleinikova

22-year-old Ukrainian tennis player Oleksandra Oleinikova can justify her last week on a 15,000-meter unpaved track in Telde (Spain). Alexandra was considered the favorite in the 4 fights before the final and in the cup match against a minor underdog, Claudia Bubelite. However, Oleinikova won the tournament, taking the 1st trophy of the season.

Interestingly, the Ukrainian held 3 similar tournaments in a row on Telda. In the first, he lost to the same Bubelita in the 1/8 final, in the second he reached the final, and in the third he took the championship, as mentioned above.

Instagram. Alexandra Oleinikova with her brother

Ukrainian tennis players in ITF tournaments: Zavatskaya, Vanshelboim and Belinsky finals

Ukrainian tennis players had a great time at the ITF tournaments last week. Three of them (not counting Oleinikova) simultaneously participated in the finals, but did not win the trophy.

Katarina Zavatskaya, a member of the Ukrainian women’s tennis team, played 25,000th in Santa Margherita di Pula (Italy). The Ukrainian player reached the final quite calmly, only having problems against Makarova and Herdzelash. But he wasn’t strong enough for the final. Katarina lost her chance to win the first trophy in 2023, losing to Sara Tsakarevich.

Ukrainian tennis player Vladislav Belinsky improved his tennis with a busy schedule, but this played a cruel joke on him. Vyacheslav played a lot in both doubles and singles at 15.000 each in Antalya and won 1 doubles cup. There was a chance to win the singles championship, but in the final of the competition, Belinsky withdrew after the first 5 matches against Dragos Madaras.

Instagram. Vyacheslav Belinsky

Eric Vanschelboim had an unexpected week of shock. The first reached the final at 25k and the second beat both first-seeded Mikael Vrbensky and promising Swiss Jerome Kim during the tournament, and the 22-year-old but already struggling in the final. Experienced Croatian Dear Aidunkovich. Therefore, we can safely say that although Eric did not win the trophy, he certainly surprised me with his performance in the 25,000th in Split.

Two Ukrainian tennis players, Alexander Brainin and Georgy Kravchenko, won the doubles title in the 15,000th event held in Telda. In the final, the Ukrainian tandem took a victory (up to 10 points) from the Spanish couple Campos / Contri in the royal tie-break. Brinin and Kravchenko won the championship together for the first time. Prior to that, they had won an ITF tournament in pairs, but with other partners.

ITF. Alexander Brainin and Georgy Kravchenko

Failure Svitolina

Elina Svitolina, the former world third and former leader of Ukrainian women’s tennis, is desperately trying to regain the skills she lost after the decree. Elina performed at 100,000th at Oeiras last week. Already in the first round, Svitolina finished her performances in the Portuguese clay tournament by losing in three sets to Denmark’s first racket Clara Tauson. The Ukrainian player won the first set, scored a match in the second set, but physically sank at the tie-break and did not play well in the third set.

Elina will play in the thousand this week in Madrid. He will meet with Alexandra Sasnovich on April 26. Not the strongest tennis player, but still in the top 50. Considering that Svitolina has rarely made it to the second round on Madrid courts throughout her career, this challenge will be difficult for her. However, it is clear that the Ukrainian player is trying to play, progress and win and is really interested in that. It is definitely not worth criticizing Svitolina for having only 1 win in 4 matches.

Instagram. Elina Svitolina

Progress Sachko

Vitaly Sachko is beginning to show more and more successful and quality tennis. He performed at the Mexican Challenger in Morelos last week. There, he reached the quarterfinals where he nearly beat James Duckworth. Vitaly won the first set and reached a tie-break in the second set, after which the fight was interrupted due to rain. Apparently, this was what slowed Sachko down, as he lost the tie-break dry – 0:7.

In the third game, Vitali took a break after Duckworth’s service in the 10th game, but served 40:0 in the next game. Progress is visible, but the Ukrainian player is unlikely to benefit from the tough part of the season. Then this season for the first time, he will perform on dirt in the Czech Republic. Let’s see what comes of this…