Another tennis week has come to an end, with the last important trophy of the year (with all due respect to the New Generation) the Davis Cup. The WTA tournament season is officially over, with only 125,000 tournaments left.

Davis Cup Final 2023

8 teams competed for the world championship on indoor hard courts in Malaga from 21 to 26 November: Canada, Italy, Australia, Great Britain, Serbia, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Finland. Among all this mass, only 2 teams stood out: Italy and Serbia. Unfortunately, the Italians and the Serbians met in the semi-finals, not the final.

Last year’s winners of the competition, Canadians, were eliminated by the Finns in the 1st round (quarter-finals). Suddenly? Probably, but last year the leaders of the national team, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, played for Canada. And this season Maple had to make do with the experienced players Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil, as well as the young and promising Gabriel Diallo.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine

I agree, this is not a level, so in the match against Finland it was a random match, although the Finns performed poorly with their squad. The Eagle Owls then lost to last year’s finalists Australia without giving them a chance. The Australians, on the other hand, were supposed to lose to the Czech Republic, but Jiri Legechka, after winning the first set, decided not to close Alex de Minaur in the second game with a score of 5:3 (30:15) on the reception. .

As a result, the demon withdrew the match and transferred the match conflict to doubles; Here the Ebden/Purcell duo (Australia’s only valuable weapon) won with experience against the same Legeczka and his partner Adam Pavlasek.

In the quarter-finals, Serbia, led by Novak Djokovic, got past Great Britain, while Italy barely beat the Netherlands. The hero of the “pasta makers” is Jannik Sinner, but we will talk about this later.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Jannik Sinner

The semi-final Australia – Finland was predictably boring, the “kangaroos” galloped ahead of the “eagle owls” who could not jump and reached the final for the second time in a row.

Perhaps the only pearl of the tournament was the Italy-Serbia match. The Serbians were seen as favorites because Matteo Arnaldi was extremely unbalanced and Miomir Kecmanovic could have shut him down (which also happened), but that’s what Novak is aiming for, to beat the upstart Sinners of all stripes. However, Yannick is already a successful tennis player, everything is not that simple for him.

Sinner needed to beat Djokovic after Arnaldi’s defeat. Yannick and Nole faced each other for the 3rd time in the last 11 days. Early in the finals, the Italian won the first racket in the group stage but lost in the final. Everything started well for him in the Davis Cup – 6:2 in the first set. But Nole took the second game by mirror score, turning the game around and reaching match point with a trio of receptions in the 10th game. Sinner did the unthinkable, served first, saved match points against the world’s best host and then broke and served. The result is 7:5 and the doubles match is ahead.

Djokovic and Kecmanovic entered the doubles match with Sinner and Sonego. Absolutely no one is meant to be a match, but character and luck decide here. Djokovic was clearly not feeling well that day. Sinner upset him here too, winning against Lorenzo and the Serbian duo in two games with scores of 6:3 and 6:4.

Video review of Jannik Sinner – Novak Djokovic match – 6:2, 2:6, 7:5

Video review of the match Sinner / Sonego – Djokovic / Kecmanovic – 6:3, 6:4

As a result, Italy advanced to the final, where they will face Australia. Interestingly, the Australians only needed to win the head-to-head match (after all, they had the strongest duo in the play-offs), that is, to overtake Arnaldi, but Alexey Popyrin could not cope with this task and did not convert a score. The only break point in the third set was 8.

With his unique style, Sinner defeated Alex de Minaur (6:3, 6:0) and became world champion together with Italy.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine

Back to Sinner and Djokovic… Yannick actually let Novak go and made him feel like he wasn’t the best tennis player on the planet, or even in history, as he lost 2 matches in 1 day for the first time in his career, and to the same opponent. But it’s strange that in order to annoy Novak and make some claims against him, you have to wait for him to win another trophy at the age of 36 or finish only the 4th young and strong racket in the world…

In 2023, Djokovic won almost everything he could: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, the US Open, the Finals, two Masters and played in the Wimbledon final. It seems like it has no limits. He left behind all the possible achievements of Federer and Nadal, wrote his name in history forever and has been toying with predictions that his era will end for 2 years. As a result, they’re making memes on social networks about Nole being the new-old Next Generation…

Djokovic can and probably even should be admired from a tennis standpoint, but there are questions about him as a person. Ukrainians, unfortunately, are already accustomed to looking for “zrada” everywhere, and you can find it in Novak, or rather in his father. Yes, Srdjan Djokovic was photographed with the Russian flag in Australia at the beginning of the year, but now I want to tell you about a few nuances…

Serbs are often thought of as the trash of Russians, and this is indeed true. Serbs also admit that their army is supported by the Russian government. But there are enough people in this country. I personally had the experience of communicating with an adult fan from Serbia who condemned Russia’s actions and considered Putin a murderer and terrorist. He was the one who explained how Serbia reacted to the situation with Srdjan Djokovic and the 404 flag.

According to him, Srdjan had no idea that the fans would raise the Russian flag. He agreed to take pictures with them, but then the fans removed this rag and a scandal ensued.

This in no way vindicates Srdjan, or perhaps Novak, because all that could be heard from them was: “We are for world peace!”, i.e. for the light in the whole house but… Our Ukrainian athletes began to call the war a war and opened their eyes only after February 24, and before that our tennis players began to skate for the Kremlin Cup. So what can you demand from Novak? He is a controversial personality, but it is not worth slandering him for supporting Russia, because he did not officially do it… Yes, he did not support Ukraine either, but that’s the way it is.

You cannot do without politics in tennis (if you can call it politics), because Russians and Belarusians continue to play in this sport under a neutral flag. There is only one way out – to deprive them of this opportunity, then at least it will be easier for everyone here to breathe, but you must understand that this, unfortunately, will not happen.

If you don’t admire Novak, you need to admire Sinner. After all, it is the world’s first future racket. This is not Carlos Alcaraz, this is not the second Novak, not Nadal or Federer, in fact it is the same “new generation”. Final, Masters title in Toronto, two major cups in Tokyo and Vienna, championship in Montpellier, world championship with Italy, Wimbledon semi-final, 10 wins against top 5 tennis players during the year and a personal record in the ATP rankings – 4th place . When Novak leaves, it will be Yannick and Carlos Alcaraz who will rise to the top of the tennis world.

KD and KBDK draw in Ukraine

The draw for the final rounds of the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers was held in Malaga on 26 November.

The Ukrainian women’s team was obviously lucky. In fact, Romania, which fell into the hands of the Ukrainians, is the weakest team that can enter the list: Australia, Switzerland, France, USA, Kazakhstan, Germany, Slovakia and even Romania. But there is a nuance: Ukraine will need Elina Svitolina. Please don’t let it be Yastremska. Begu or Ruse seem much more experienced and reliable than Dayana, who has always been inconsistent on the field.

Marta Kostyuk does not plan to play, so the second number after Eli should be Angelina Kalinina. You have to hope to see the Kichenok sisters as a couple and then the cast is complete, chances are good. Any loss would be bad for us and Elina not participating would be disastrous.

The Ukrainian men’s team was clearly unlucky. It will be almost impossible to play against the USA. It is worth considering the clay ground, since the host country is Ukraine, but the class difference of tennis players is still large. You can and should hope for a miracle, but on paper there is no chance.

A tournament will be held in Russia with the participation of foreign tennis players

Yes, characters such as Roberto Bautista Agut, Laszlo Djere, Adrian Mannarino, Dusan Lajovic, Jasmine Paolini and Yulia Putintseva competed in the exhibition tournament in St. Petersburg. He will go to conquer St. Petersburg.

Returning to the subject of the Serbs, let us also point out that among them there is a Frenchman, a Spaniard, and even an Italian…

This will be the second tournament of this kind. It is prohibited to hold official competitions in the Russian Federation.

Ursu ​​Trophy, Lazarenko’s first final

The two representatives of Ukraine had a good tennis week in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt).

Vadim Ursu won his 2nd championship in 2 weeks, 3rd championship of the season and 4th championship of his career. He defeated Russian Evgeniy Filippov in the final.

View this post on Instagram

Posted by 🎾URSU (@ursuvadym)

19-year-old Katerina Lazarenko reached the final of a professional tournament for the first time in her career, defeating neutral Alice Kümmel in the semi-finals. However, the Ukrainian player could not play in the final match against Briana Szabo. In her statement to Sport.ua, Katerina stated that she was ill and played the last match with an injury.

rival in Valencia

In the fight in Valencia, the title would be defended by Alexey Krutykh. Ukraine made it through the qualifiers but lost to Adrian Andreev in the first round of the main draw.

The Ukrainian lost to the Bulgarian in the 3rd set tiebreak with a score of 5:7, but won 5:0… It was interesting that a month ago Krutykh could not beat Andreev in the final of the Challenger qualifiers. Brest

The final of the tournament in Spain was quite interesting: Roberto Bautista Agut played against Fabio Fognini. In the second game, the Spaniard first had match point on serve in the 10th game, then had match point on serve in the tiebreaker, but Don Fabio came back into the game, changed the course of the match and won the cup.

For Fognini, this championship was his first since 2019 and his first Challenger trophy since 2010.

on Twitter. Fabio Fognini

off-court tennis

Four-time Grand Slam winner (three times in men’s doubles and once in mixed doubles) Jack Sock has announced that a child is coming to his family.

Jack and his wife, Miss North Carolina 2019 Laura Little, have a son named Brody Brian.

Sock, 31, who retired after the US Open 2023, wrote “The best day of our lives” on the photo.

Instagram. Jack Sock

Famous Czech tennis player Barbora Strycova announced that she is expecting her second child.

“Vincent will be a big brother,” the 37-year-old Czech woman wrote on social networks.

Barbora Strycova became the 2019 Wimbledon doubles champion. In the same year, she reached the semi-finals in singles at Wimbledon. She announced her retirement in 2021, but returned in 2023 and won doubles again at Wimbledon alongside Xie Shuwei.

Famous former tennis player David Nalbandian has been accused of harassment and harassment.

The complaint was filed by his ex-girlfriend, Araceli Torrado, who alleged that Nalbandian placed a camera in the vent of the apartment they shared while they were still together to monitor her and see what she was doing. It is not yet clear how the issue will turn out.