Triumph for the 39-year-old Russian tennis player! Won the Final and rewrote history

Russian Vera Zvonareva won her first WTA tournament back in 2003, but two decades later she continues to delight fans on the court.

Our athlete triumphantly completed the WTA Final Tournament in Cancun, where only the lazy did not complain about the difficult conditions. But the experienced tennis player endured a crazy schedule and won the prestigious title.

Victory experience

The final game of the WTA Final Tournament in Cancun, Mexico, was not without the participation of the Russian. In the doubles title match, Vera Zvonareva, paired with German Laura Siegemund, faced the American-Australian duo Nicole Melicar-Martinez/Ellen Perez. Vera had to go to the next trophy in harsh conditions, because the organizers seemed to have done everything possible to make the participants feel not too comfortable.

At the preliminary stage, the Zvonareva/Siegemund pair performed in the Mahahual group, where they only managed to take second place. To two hard victories in the championship tiebreaker, a defeat in two sets from the Dabrowski/Rutliff pair was added. As a result, they had to compete with the best duet of the group, Maya Kaan, consisting of Australian Storm Hunter and Belgian Elise Mertens, to reach the finals. After losing the opening set (3:6), Vera and Laura managed to rally and win with a mirror score, and then again turned out to be better in the decisive super tiebreaker.

In the final, it was very important for tennis players from Russia and Germany to avoid failures at the start. Zvonareva and Siegemund already had winning experience in the game against Melicar-Martinez and Perez – in August at the Washington tournament they knocked out their opponents, seeded number one, and then reached the trophy.

Emotions and hugs

The opening game turned out to be tense – the American-Australian pair more often won the draws due to active actions, although they made more mistakes. Zvonareva and Siegemund made a break when the score was 2:1 in their favor and were able to maintain the advantage until the end of the game – 6:4. However, almost every game was a nervous struggle and could have ended any way. It is enough to note that in five out of ten games the score reached 40:40 and the decisive draw.

Vera Zvonareva and Laura Siegemund / Photo: © Matthew Stockman / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

In the second set, the pattern of the meeting did not change. Most of the games the opponents brought to a score of 40:40 and the outcome was decided at the very end. An exception to the general rule was the third game, when Laura and Vera managed to break someone else’s serve. The German performed a small miracle when she put her racket under Melicar-Martinez’s attack, and then the ball ended up in the corner of the court. But the emotional episode did not break the representatives of the USA and Australia.

Even with the score 5:3 in favor of Zvonareva and Siegemund, the rivals did not think of giving up. They took their serve surprisingly easily and aimed to continue the fight. They went to the break in a great mood. Sipping energy drinks under an umbrella, the athletes were clearly discussing something other than their approaching defeat.

Everything could have been decided on Vera’s serve – three rallies remained for the Russian-German duet, with only a step left to victory. But even here it was not possible to do without hassle. At first Ellen received well, then Laura played poorly at the net. Our tennis player was also nervous and took a long time to prepare herself for the decisive serve. But finally the ball is in play, a long rally, a mistake by Perez and a hug from the happy Zvonareva and Siegemund.

Having won her 16th title, Zvonareva set several cool achievements at once. Vera, who turned 39 in September, became the oldest winner of the WTA Finals in history. In addition, she is only the second tennis player who managed to win this tournament as a mother. The daughter of the famous tennis player Evelina was born seven years ago.

Thanks to a stunning finish to the season, Vera will end the year in the top 10 of the WTA doubles rankings. And judging by her brilliant performance, there is every chance that she will continue to rewrite records next season.