It was held on Canadian courts last week for the best tennis players on the planet. The women played the Canadian Open this season in Montreal, while the men played in Toronto. There have been many unpleasant moments for Ukrainian tennis, but Dayana Yastremska’s title at other competitions in Poland sweetened the pill. After the birth of two children, Caroline Wozniacki returned to the field and Gael Monfils played at the highest level again.

WTA 1000 Montreal

Unfortunately, although everything started quite well, the Ukrainians completely failed in this huge and prestigious tournament. Lesya Tsurenko was the only one among us who played qualifiers, and at first she was seamlessly involved with Canadian Bianca Fernandez, the younger sister of US Open 2021 finalist Leyla Fernandez. 19-year-old Bianca received a wild card from the organizers, but the draw gave her first place and as a result, Fernandez Jr. He only won four matches. In the final of the selection, Lesya also proved her strength in the match with Elizabeth Mandlik from the USA without any problems, but she was not destined to play at the base. Tsurenko was unable to play in the first round against Petra Martic due to an old elbow problem. According to the tennis player himself, the problem stems from the very heavy balls used in the American series (Wilson US Open).

It seems that these balls are not very suitable for other Ukrainians. It all started when Angelina Kalinina lost to American Sloan Stevens, who was slowly approaching her past successes, but still one level weaker than before. Angelina for a long time did not please her Ukrainian fans with high results. After the final in Rome, she played 10 matches, of which she won only three. He won’t suffer a big loss in points until December, it seems like the ideal time to move up in the rankings, but for now, that’s how it is.

Now it’s Elina Svitolina’s turn. Our first racquet against Daniel Collins in the first round did nothing, the American was the best in every component of the game. The US representative was really good in Montreal, rightfully reaching the 1/4 final of the main draw, where he lost only to the world’s first racket, Iga Sviontek.

The last representative of Ukraine at the base was Marta Kostyuk, who played with a record for herself (32). He had to play with Chinese Zheng Qinwen, one of the few matches in his Ukrainian career where he was older than his opponent. The match was tight, but in the third set, Zheng took a quick break and kept the win. Previously, Kostyuk lost only three times to tennis players younger than him. Cory Gauff, Emma Radukan and Clara Tauson managed to beat Martha once.

As for the doubles, the best duo Storm Hunter / Eliza Mertens (Australia/Belgium) closed the doors right in front of the two Ukrainian duets. In the second round, they lost to Marta Kostyuk along with the Chinese Zhang Shuai in the 1/4 final – Lyudmila Kichenok and Alena Ostapenko from Latvia. Nadezhda Kichenok and American Alisha Parks were eliminated in the first round.

Jessica Pegula advanced to the final a day before her opponent, who stopped Swiatek in the semi-finals. The second semi-final of Rybakin – Samsonov was postponed due to rain. As for the final, Pegula’s advantage made itself felt in one day, Samsonova was defeated in two matches. For Jessica, this is the second title of this level.

It is important to note the return of the world’s first racket, Caroline Wozniacki, who did not play after the Australian Open 2020. At one time, the representative of Denmark was the leader of the world rankings for 71 weeks. Curiously, Iga Swiatek reached the same figure last week. Only 9 tennis players have more, Lindsay Davenport (98) is next. A minor spoiler – the polka will remain the first racket, at least until the end of the US Open, which is another +4 weeks.

Wozniacki proved stronger than Australia’s Kimberly Birrell in Montreal and also put up reasonable resistance against Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova. Wozniacki also said he will reach the top of his form for the US Open. There are great doubts that he could become competitive so quickly in the fight for the final rounds, but with a good draw he could definitely win a few games. By the way, if you remember, six years ago Svitolina played a great final against Wozniacki at the Canadian Open (6:4, 6:0), then the girls played in Toronto, which was more successful for us.

ATP Masters 1000 Toronto

Masters in Toronto turned out to be quite extraordinary with many unexpected results. Top ranked Carlos Alcaras lost to American Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals. Second-seeded Daniil Medvedev lost to Alex De Minaur in the same stage. Kasper Ruud, the third racket of the competition, lost to Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second match. Number 5 Holger Rune was eliminated in the first match, losing to David Giron of the USA. Another top ten player, Andrey Rublev, was defeated at an early stage by American MacKenzie McDonald.

Fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas lost to Gael Monfils in the opening match after winning the title at Los Cabos. For Elina Svitolina’s husband, this was her 14th career victory against a player in the top 5 in the world rankings, and only second in the last 5 and a half years.

Overall, Monfils wasted no time in his long recovery and returned to his high level. He won three games in Toronto and lost in 1/4 finals to eventual winner Yannick Sinner. Gael also told reporters that he wanted his daughter to do another sport with Svitolina and announced that he would try to play mixed doubles with Elina towards the end of her career.

The Italian Sinner proved his seeded best. In the title match, he faced De Minaur, both of whom had never won a tournament of this caliber before. Yannick was the clear favorite and deservedly won. He had previously lost two finals at the Masters in Miami. This is the first time De Minaur has fought for a title of this rank.

Yastremska title in Poland

Dayana did not please her Ukrainian fans with high results for a long time. He has only 3 wins against his top 50 opponents this year. However, this was not necessary for a good performance in the Challenger. The leader of the standings was Yule Niemeyer, the 94th racket of the world, all opponents of Yastremskaya on the way to the championship were in the second hundred. However, it’s like Ukrainian at the moment. After a strong-willed third-round win against Czech Tereza Martintsova, who had beaten the Ukrainian three times before, it became clear that Dayana could make some noise in this tournament in Kozerki. And so it happened, even after losing the first set in the final to Belgium’s Gret Minnen with a score of 2:6, the Ukrainian found the strength to come back. Meanwhile, in the match against Martintsova, Yastremska interrupted an unpleasant streak of 26 losses after losing the first set. Previously, it was possible in the already legendary match against Alena Ostapenko in Birmingham 2022. Two strong-willed victories in one tournament for Dayana was the only time before that in the ITF 25,000 in the distant 2016.

In doubles, Yastremskaya advanced to the semi-finals in a duet with Ankita Raina from India. Katarina Zawatskaya also played in Kozerki. She managed to break the streak of four losses, but in the second round, Katya was eliminated by Eva Lis from Kiev, who played under the German flag. Eva lost to the future finalist in the 1/4 final.

Challengers and ITF tournaments

Yulia Starodubtseva opened the week as a top 100 player, but she didn’t perform very well among the 100,000 singles in Landisville, losing in the first round to Chinese Wang Xiyu, who eventually took the title. But in doubles, Yulia was successful. She managed to win the first three matches in a duet with the American Sophie Chang, after which Olivia Gadetsky and Mai Hontama refused to participate in the final battle. Starodubtseva thus won the biggest doubles title ever. The week can be considered successful. Anna Poznikhirenko also performed at the same tournament. She managed to defeat Japanese Moyuka Uchijima in the first round, but was followed by a defeat from American Madison Brengle.

Köser Kuyumcu Tennis Challenge. Julia Starodubtseva and Sophie Chang

Alexandra Oleinikova competed for the first time in the ITF W100 in the main draw. After qualifying at Maspalomas, the Ukrainian reached the second round of base, where she failed to beat veteran fielder Sara Errani.

Eric Vanschelboim scores his first win in the main draw of an ATP Challenger Tour tournament. In Banja Luka, he managed to beat the seventh-placed Czech Zdeněk Kolář. It was not possible to develop success, in the next match Eric lost to Toby Kodat from the USA. Denis Molchanov reached the doubles final in this tournament. He played alongside former Russian Andrey Golubev, who has been playing in Kazakhstan since 2008. They lost in the title match to Victor Vlad Korni and Philipp Oswald (Romania/Austria).

Vladislav Orlov lost to fourth-seeded Matteo Gigante in the first round of Challenger at Cordenons (Italy) and won the first match in a tie-break.

Anastasia Soboleva performed well at the 25,000th in Leipzig. Only first-seeded Czech Brenda Frugvirtova could stop the Ukrainian in the semi-finals. As a result, the representative of the Czech Republic took the championship in these competitions without losing a single set.

out of court

Marina Zanevskaya has announced that the US Open will be her last tournament in her career. It was previously known that the Odessa player, who has been playing for Belgium since 2016, will complete at the end of this season, but more specific dates have now been named. Meanwhile, Zanevskaya does not exclude that she may return, but she is no longer able to play and train at the proper level due to back pain.

Nick Kyrgios will not play at the US Open. He didn’t actually have a season, with the controversial Australian playing just one game since the beginning of the year.

Bonus

Title “Feel like old.” Four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters’ daughter named Jade played in the U16 European Basketball Championship. Jade was born in 2008 and has already reached over 1.80 metres. Keep in mind that Kim’s husband, Brian Lynch, is an American basketball coach and former professional player, so the choice of sport for his daughter cannot be called accidental.