Russian tennis players almost everywhere have the opportunity to compete in international tournaments as individuals, but team tournaments are closed to them. The day before, in the UAE, our athletes finally managed to play together. The result was impressive: the Russians won the World Tennis League.

Our tennis stars ended the year in style!

Russian “Eagles”

From December 21 to 24, the UAE hosted an exhibition tournament – the World Tennis League. And if a year ago during the debut draw the Russian representation was limited to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, this time four of our tennis players were involved at once. Vera Zvonareva represented the Falcons team. Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Mirra Andreeva joined the Eagles. They were accompanied by American Sofia Kenin, who, by the way, was also born in our country.

At the first stage, four teams (in addition to the two mentioned “bird” teams, there were also “Korshun” and “Hawks”) had to play with each other. Men, women, men’s and women’s pairs, as well as mixed duets took turns on the court – in each match the fight was limited to one set.

An interesting point is that the games within the confrontation between the two teams were summed up. In case of a tie, the participants faced a decisive tiebreaker. So the confrontation between “Falcons” and “Hawks” ended in a short battle between Elena Rybakina and Iga Shwiatek, which ended in the victory of the Kazakh athlete. The outcome of the meeting between “Korshunov” and “Sokolov” was decided by Arina Sabalenko and the same Rybakina – victory this time was on the side of the representative of Belarus. The Russians also had to take part in a fateful tiebreaker – Daniil Medvedev helped the Eagles defeat the Hawks, beating Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

Andreeva’s revenge, sensation from Kenin

According to the results of the group stage, the first place was taken by the Kites with Sabalenka and Tsitsipas in the lineup, the last place was taken by the Hawks, led by the WTA ranking leader Szwiatek. The second finalist was the almost Russian quartet “Eagles”.

Mixed pairs were the first to take to the court – Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva were opposed by the Greek-Spanish duo of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa. It came to a tiebreaker, where the Russians lost after a bitter struggle.

Next, the fans were treated to a women’s doubles match. And here Andreeva managed to get revenge – together with Kenin, they somewhat unexpectedly defeated Badosa and Sabalenka. The Russian-American duo lost with a score of 2:5, but managed to save the game in an almost hopeless situation, taking five games in a row – 7:5.

The confrontation between the men’s pairs also ended in a victory for the Eagles, and much more confidently. Medvedev and Rublev played against Lloyd Harris from South Africa and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Our tennis players managed to convert a break point in the eighth game, after which they did not miss the victory.

Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev / Photo: © Personal archive of Daniil Medvedev

In a seemingly predictable confrontation between tennis players, where Kenin played with Sabalenka, the Eagles won another sensational victory. The American was able to defeat one of the strongest tennis players on the planet with a score of 6:4. And, by the way, at this singles tournament Sofia did not lose to anyone at all.

Before the final game, the Eagles had a good advantage over the opponent – 25:19. In the match with Dimitrov, it was important for Rublev simply not to fail. Andrey started confidently, took two games, but in the end he managed to lose and was forced to play overtime. But the Kites did not create a miracle – the strongest Russian tennis players as part of the experimental team won in Abu Dhabi and are ending the calendar year in a great mood.