Russian tennis players often change their sports citizenship in search of a better life, but not all of them have successful careers after this. So Varvara Gracheva, who refused her Russian passport, suffered a crushing defeat at a prestigious tournament.

Traded my homeland for wine

Gracheva was born in the Moscow region and represented Russia on the international stage for a long time. However, in 2023, she received a passport from France, where she had lived for several years before. Among the reasons for changing citizenship, Varvara jokingly named her love for local wine and cheese. In fact, the athlete simply wanted to live in a European country, being its citizen.

“Because I love France and I want to live in France as a Frenchwoman,” the Championship quotes Gracheva as saying.

The athlete also received the right to play at the Olympics. If she had remained a Russian citizen, she would not have been able to do this. But at the Games in Paris, Varvara performed ingloriously, dropping out after the first game.

After the Olympics, the athlete’s career also did not take off. At WTA tournaments, she regularly finished the fight in the early stages and approached the WTA 250 tournament in Hong Kong as the 66th racket in the world. Here Varvara could count on a good performance, because she was the seventh seed.

But already in the first round she had to face big problems, despite the fact that she played with Russian Tatyana Prozorova, who occupies a modest 268th position in the WTA rankings. The match lasted more than two hours, and Gracheva had to play all three games to win.

Varvara Gracheva / Photo: © Clive Brunskill / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Varvara’s second rival was another representative of Russia, Anastasia Zakharova, who is also not in the top hundred, but is having the best season of her career. At the beginning of the year, she reached the third round for the first time at the Australian Open. Zakharova also came to Hong Kong after winning two ITF tournaments.

At the same time, Anastasia has a very interesting fate. She learned tennis from her father, whose main sport was once rowing. He played tennis quite a bit. The equipment was installed for my daughter using a video from the Internet, and my dad did a pretty good job of it.

Lost by one wicket

By all accounts, Gracheva was the clear favorite in this game. And in the first set, the lover of French wine and cheese started confidently, taking the opening game. But already in the third game Anastasia made a break. Varvara failed on her serve, making two double faults. Zakharova also acted aggressively at the reception.

After this success, the Russian also looked more convincing than her opponent. She did not allow Gracheva to earn a single break point. In the ninth game, Zakharova again took advantage of her opponent’s uncertain play, making a second break and taking the set with a score of 6:3.

Even the most modest athletes can win one game at the professional level in women’s tennis. But victories in two sets in a row happen much less often, but not in the case of Zakharova. Anastasia looked even more convincing in the second segment, allowing her opponent to take only one game, and won with a score of 6:1.

Thanks to this victory, Zakharova came close to the top 100 of the women’s rankings. If she continues to perform like this, her debut in the top hundred will take place next week. But in the quarterfinals, Anastasia will face a more difficult test in the person of the British Katie Boulter, who is seeded second in Hong Kong.