In the tennis tournament at the 2024 Olympics, Russia’s main medal expectations are associated with Daniil Medvedev. And the athlete confidently began his performance in Paris with a victory over Australian Rinki Hijikata. By the way, Medvedev’s opponent was not the most stellar.

Another Russian tennis player, 25-year-old Pavel Kotov, had to play his first match at the Olympics against three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka. Even before the match, many experts favored the 39-year-old athlete from Switzerland. However, Kotov has been performing very well this year and even managed to beat Wawrinka on the courts of Roland Garros.

The President of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpishchev, noted that Kotov could present a surprise at the Olympics.

— Kotov has improved a lot this year. You could say he has made a breakthrough. The good thing is that no one has really studied him yet. Pavel is a powerful guy, he has a great ball, and he is a strong-willed player. He never gives up, his nerves are in order. It is great that we have such a player in the national team. There are all the prerequisites for Kotov to improve even more. It happens that sometimes you can play according to the score, not give all your strength on the court if the situation requires you to save it, but Pavel has everything ahead of him, — Match TV quotes Tarpishchev as saying.

Victory without resistance

Kotov and Wawrinka were supposed to play on July 27, but due to bad weather conditions, the tennis matches on open courts were postponed. However, the athletes were unable to start on time the next day for the same reason. After waiting for more than an hour, spectators finally saw the tennis players confront each other.

Wawrinka, confirming his status as the favorite, started confidently and even aggressively – immediately an ace in the center. Then immediately a second ace, and then a third. But after a successful start, the Swiss missed his shot twice, and now the score was 40-30. Stan pulled himself together in time and finished the game with an excellent serve.

At the same time, it was felt that the spectators supported Wawrinka exclusively. The court was literally drowning in applause after each successful action of the tennis veteran. To the approval of the audience, the Swiss easily took two more games. It seemed that there would be no intrigue in this match, and Stan’s advancement to the next round was a matter of time.

Pavel Kotov / Photo: © Match TV

However, Kotov quickly stepped up and broke the score to 1:4. But just as the spectators began to believe in the existence of a fight on the court, Wawrinka brought the matter to an end and took the opening set at the Olympics.

The Swiss tennis player’s colossal advantage over the Russian was surprising. The experienced athlete was, of course, the favorite, but it was expected that Kotov would be able to cause problems for his opponent. Especially since Pavel had recently driven Wawrinka on these same courts in the second round of Roland Garros.

Before the start of the second set, Kotov took a medical break. The doctor examined the Russian’s right forearm for several minutes, while the Swiss entertained the crowd: he hit invisible balls to the enthusiastic roar of the spectators.

It seemed that our athlete should be angry at his opponent and the crowd, which openly supported only one tennis player. And Kotov started vigorously, taking the first game. However, after that Stan continued to confidently take revenge. The Russian made mistakes with his forehand and sent the balls into the net. As a result, Wawrinka took six games in a row and won the second set.

Kotov, with almost no resistance, let his opponent through to the next round. On the other hand, it was extremely difficult for our tennis player to cope with an experienced opponent when all the spectators were rooting against him.