Swiatek’s fall, another Ukraine debacle, Yakubenko’s expectations, Kolb final

The last tennis week of September has come to an end. The best female tennis players on the planet competed for the trophy at the WTA 500 in Tokyo and the WTA 250 in Ningbo, while the men competed in Beijing and Astana. True, the ATP competition has not ended yet, only the quarter-finalists and semi-finalists of the competition, respectively, are known. Ukrainians once again played a weak game, but our young tennis players managed to please a little. Everything is in order…

WTA 500 Tokyo

The central tournament of the week ended frankly horribly. The winner was the representative of the terrorist country Veronika Kudermetova, the Ukrainians were eliminated in the first stages, and the second racket in the world, Iga Swiatek, showed a weak level in tennis.

Two Ukrainian tennis players participated in the competition held in the capital of Japan in singles: Angelina Kalinina and Marta Kostyuk.

Angelina easily beat up-and-coming American Ashlyn Kruger in the 1st round, who recently won the first trophy of her career in Osaka. Kalinina then faced #5 seed Caroline Garcia and lost to her without much of a chance. Yes, not a defeat (4:6, 3:6), but the course of the meeting was completely controlled by the Frenchwoman.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Angelina Kalinina

Marta failed to put the finishing touches on Daria Kasatkina in the 1/16 final. The Ukrainian took the first set, took the lead with three breaks in the second set, but lost 3 games in a row after 3:3, allowing Kasatkina to equalize the score in games. In the third set, Kostyuk again had the starting advantage, winning first 2:1, then 3:2 with a break, but once again gave up 3 games with a score of 3:3.

After the match ended, Kostyuk did not shake Kasatkina’s hand. This became a separate topic of discussion, they say: “Kasatkina is a friend of Ukraine. Marta wishes Rybakina good luck, but she can’t shake Daria’s hand.” We got no comment from Marta regarding Rybakina’s situation at the US Open, but it seems the principle applied: “If you lose, then the strongest and especially “But for Kasatkina… If Daria comes… We went out on the field with the Ukrainian flag – no problem, I think every Ukrainian woman will help. It is worth thanking Kasatkina for her support and adequate position.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Marta Kostyuk

Meanwhile, Marta and Angelina, who were unsuccessful at the tournament in Tokyo, made a good start in Beijing with a thousandth place. Time will tell how things will go further, but we need to support our girls and believe that at least one of them will break into the top 10 of the WTA rankings.

The cup was won by Veronika Kudermetova, who beat Jessica Pegula in the final.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Jessica Pegula and Veronika Kudermetova

On his way, or rather in the quarterfinals, he defeated the “neutral” tennis player Iga Swiatek. It is probably worth dwelling on the results of Iga.

Iga was unable to defend her US Open title and lost her WTA title to Aryna Sabalenka. Tennis needs to be saved, I trust Iga, but as sad as it sounds, the Polish team is weak so far. Maybe it’s just a minor recession, maybe the peak has passed… The second option is scary but still unlikely. It is necessary to look at the facts: Iga played poorly against world number 148 Mai Hontama and then lost to Kudermetova for the first time in 5 one-on-one matches.

Swiatek defeated the Japanese player in two sets. In the first match, Iga was behind 1:4 with two breaks, but took the set 7:5. In the 2nd round, he lost the starting game on serve, but immediately returned to the game and closed the Japanese 6:4, but lost 4 games on serve with a score of 5:1. Iga changed sets with Kudermetova (2:6, 6:2), could not return Veronica’s serve even once in the third game, and eventually lost 4:6, causing her opponent to break in the 3rd game.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Iga Swiatek

The tournament in Tokyo was a chance for Iga to close the gap on Sabalenka in the race for first place and to completely eliminate this gap with her successful performance in Beijing in the thousandth place, but for now it is just that…

Separately, it is worth noting the performances of Nadezhda Kichenok in doubles. The Ukrainian athlete, together with Miyu Kato, reached the semi-finals, where they lost to the duo Eri Hozumi / Makoto Ninomiya. In her last 11 matches since the US Open, Nadezhda has won 9 times in doubles. Kichenok advanced to the 2nd round of the thousandth round in Beijing and, along with Monica Niculescu, overtook seventh-placed Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara.

WTA 250 Ningbo

Two Ukrainians competed in the tournament in Ningbo: Katerina Volodko and Katerina Beindl.

Volodko passed the opening round of qualification but lost to Anna-Lena Friedz in the final selection.

Beindl beat Yue Yuan in the 1/16 final but lost to Lucia Bronzetti in the 2nd round with scores of 3:6 and 3:6 in two games. She now competes in the thousandth race in Katerina Beijing, where she successfully qualified by beating Rebeka Masarova and Yanina Wickmayer. At the start of the main event, the Ukrainian player will meet the world’s 10th racket, Caroline Garcia.

The winner of the competition was Ons Jabeur. It was his 7th racket award in the world, the fifth award in his career and the 2nd award of the season. Interestingly, the Tunisian representative won the championship on hard ground for the first time.

ATP 500 Beijing / ATP 250 Astana

These competitions are not over yet. Semi-finalists have been announced so far in Kazakhstan, and quarter-finalists have been determined in China. Apart from Carlitos’ confident move at 500,000 metres, nothing interesting has happened there yet. Here, the Spaniard managed to defeat Yannick Hanfmann and Lorenzo Musetti and defeated the Italians with sets of 6:2, 6:2. Ruud is next and a super match with Sinner is possible in the semi-finals.

In a good way, Carlos needs a trophy because Novak Djokovic’s lead in the ATP rankings is not very attractive.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Carlos Alcaraz

Holger Rune’s weakness after Wimbledon is also surprising. The Danish player, who has won only 1 of 8 matches since the end of July, beat Felix Auger-Aliassime, who was not in good shape at the beginning, in Astana and lost in two games to mini-Federer Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals. Sets. But even more surprising is that Holger is still ranked No. 4 in the world. What happened to men’s tennis, there is no one to support except Alcaraz and Sinner…

Asian Games

The 2022 Asian Games tennis tournament, held in Hangzhou, China, between September 24-30, was planned for last year but was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Singles. Women

Zhen Qingwen defeated Zhu Lin in the final with scores of 6:2 and 6:4 and became the sixth Chinese tennis player to win the singles title at the Asian Games, her fifth in a row.

• 1. Zhen Qingwen (China)
• 2. Zhu Lin (China)
• 3. Haruka Kaji (Japan)
• 3. Alexandra Eala (Philippines)

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine

Singles. men

The winner of the competition was Zhang Zhizhen. Zhang became the third Chinese player to win the men’s singles title. Before that, only Pan Bin had achieved this in 1990 and 1994.

• 1. Zhang Zhizhen (China)
• 2. Yosuke Watanuki (Japan)
• 3. Hong Song Chan (South Korea)
• 3. Humayun Sultanov (Uzbekistan)

Couples. Women

The Zhang brothers won the gold medal. Representing Chinese Taipei, Haoqing and Latisha performed together at the third consecutive Asian Games: the tennis players took bronze in 2014 and silver in 2018.

• 1. Zhan Haoqing / Zhan Latisha (Chinese Taipei)
• 2. Li Yaxuan / Liang Enshuo (Chinese Taipei)
• 3. Baek Ta-yeon / Jeon Po-yeon (South Korea)
• 3. Aldila Sutjiadi / Janice Tjen (Indonesia)

Couples. men

For the first time in the history of the Asian Games, Chinese Taipei duo Xu Yuxou / Jason Rong won the gold medal in the men’s doubles. Previously, representatives of this team could not even make it to the final.

• 1. Xu Yuxou / Jason Rong (Chinese Taipei)
• 2. Saketh Myneni / Ramkumar Ramanathan (India)
• 3. Hong Sung Chan / Kwon Sun Woo (South Korea)
• 3. Pruchya Isaro / Maximus Jones (Thailand)

Mixed doubles

The winner was the Indian tandem Rutuja Bhosale / Rohan Bopanna. In the last six mixed doubles medal events at the Asian Games, Indian tennis players have reached the final five times and this year’s victory was the third for the Indian representatives.

• 1. Rutuja Bhosale / Rohan Bopanna (India)
• 2. Liang Enshuo / Huang Zonghao (Chinese Taipei)
• 3. Zhang Haoqing / Xu Yuxou (Chinese Taipei)
• 3. Alexandra Eala / Francis Alcantara (Philippines)

Alexey Krutykh

After his superb performance for the Ukrainian national team, Alexey Krutykh has yet to fully adapt to the rhythm of his opponents. The Ukrainian player failed to get into the main draw of the tournament in Braga and lost to Javier Barranco in the qualifying final.

This week Alexey performs at the Challenger in Lisbon. He defeated a local tennis player in the 1st round of qualifications and will play in the final against Carlos Taberner, who was once the 85th racket.

Finale for the Kolb brothers

The Kolb brothers have been quietly creating nightmares in the ITF series tournaments (I hope I’m not trying to soften the phrase too much). Since September, Nadezhda and Marina have played in the final of the competition three times, winning 1 cup, and the Ukrainians also reached 1 semi-final in 60,000 m.

This week the sisters lost to the American duo of Dalaina Hewitt / Madison Sing in the cup match at the ITF W25 in Santarem. The Ukrainians had a chance to succeed but lost in the super tiebreaker with a score of 10:12.

Even more pleasant is that the sisters, natives of Crimea, have a completely pro-Ukrainian position. We will support Marina and Nadezhda in future competitions.

Yakubenko’s expectations

Vladimir Yakubenko, Ukraine’s number 1 among juniors, won a match in an ITF series tournament for the first time this week. In the 15,000 meters race in Forbach, the Ukrainian athlete received a quota set by the ITF for juniors.

In the 1/16 final of the competition, 18-year-old Yakubenko sensationally defeated the first seeded tennis player Max-Hans Rehberg and then reached the quarter-finals, defeating Daniel De Jonge.

In these two fights Vladimir was clearly an outsider. However, they failed to qualify for the semi-finals. Already the favorite in the match against Tom Gencz, the Ukrainian lost to the German in three tiebreaks.

Kotlyar’s performance is not bad

Elizaveta Kotlyar is considered one of the most promising young tennis players in Ukraine, along with Alisa Baranovskaya. However, Alisa already has 1 trophy at the ITF level, but Kotlyar is 2 years younger than her.

This week Elizaveta reached the quarter finals of the 15,000 meters race in Monastir and lost to Gina Feistel. The Polish woman eventually advanced to the final.

Kotlyar was fighting for the 2nd semi-final in his professional career. The Ukrainian player played in the 1/4 final stage for the first time in 2023.

Vanshelboim double final

Ukrainian tennis player Erik Vanshelboim reached the doubles final at the ITF M25 tournament held in Pazarcık (Bulgaria). In the cup match, the Ukrainian player, along with his Dutch partner Max Haukes, could not get a single match from Austrians Sandro Kopp and Neil Oberleitner.

Eric Vanshelboim played in the doubles final of an ITF tournament for the fifth time this year and for the first time he failed to win the championship. In total, this was the 19th doubles final for the Ukrainian tennis player, competing for the ninth trophy in ITF tournaments.

Misaki Doi retired

This tennis week was not rich in off-court events, and the end of Misaki Doi’s career was directly related to the tennis court.

The 32-year-old Japanese woman announced that she will quit professional tennis in 2023 due to worsening back problems.

On September 28, Misaki Doi lost to fourth seed Maria Sakkari from Greece (3:6, 1:6) in the second round match at the WTA 500 tournament in Tokyo. This was his last fight.

Doi announced his retirement from tennis a month ago. Misaki won 3 WTA titles during her career, one in singles and two in doubles. Total career awards: $3,946,733.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Misaki Doi