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Russians Leave by Three
// Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetaova, and Elena Likhovtseva leave NASDAQ-100 Open
Tennis
Another day at NASDAQ-100 Open Tournament in Miami turned out to be the most unsuccessful for Russians. Three of our women players were eliminated from the competitions. Among them are Roland Garros and US Open Champions Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova. However, Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova passed into a quarterfinal.
The most unexpected event of the tournament was the elimination of Svetlana Kuznetsova. Judging by her rank, she should have defeated 17-year old Ana Ivanovic with no problem. However, the Russian had back luck from the very beginning of the match. It cannot be said that the Serbian tennis player surprised everybody with a powerful game. More likely, Kuznetsova just could not catch the rhythm of the game as if she had forgotten she could play offensively. Having lost the first set, Kuznetsova held the second one better; however that was the extent of her achievements. Ivanovic won an extra break at the third set, which happened at the very end, and the Russian simply had no time left to win it back.
Unlike Kuznetsova’s, Myskina’s defeat may be considered more logical. At least she had a stronger rival to play against – the ex-World Champion Kim Clijsters. The Belgian had just returned to playing after a wrist surgery. However, in spite of a long break, Clijsters now plays as well as she had during her best years. This fact is confirmed by her victory at the Indian Wells tournament. Unlike Clijsters, Myskina cannot brag of such readiness, so she had a hard time to oppose the Belgian. Let us hope that Clijsters runs into problems in her next match, for she has to play against Elena Demenetyeva, who will try to avenge her friend.
Another ex-World Champion from Belgium, Justine Henin-Hardenne, who also had just returned after a long break, passed into the quarter final, having defeated Alicia Molik. This victory is worthy of mention for the reason that now she will face Maria Sharapova, who quickly beat Shinobu Asagoe 6-1, 6-2. So fans will see two Russian-Belgian oppositions in quarterfinals.
However, the main attention, of course, will be devoted to the match of two Williams sisters – Serena and Venus. The first one passed into the quarterfinal after defeating Elena Likhovtseva (the third player lost by Russia), and her elder sister beat Catalina Castano.
Two or three years ago matches between the Williams sisters were a sort of a brand of women’s tennis. There have been as many as 12 of them – at one time they had monopolized the right for world titles, time and again holding the Grand Slam Tournaments finals within the family circle. However, they had played against each other since July 2003, when Serena beat Venus for the seventh time at the Wimbledon final.
So, the upcoming match promises to be one of the most interesting at the tournament. “Our matches are entertaining for spectators. For us they are no more than plain work,” Venus Williams commented on their upcoming game. “We are very close, and always wish the best to each other. But here one will have to lose. And that is the only sad thing about it.”
Roger Federer is a doubtless favorite of the men’s part of the tournament – he has already won four tournaments this season, and has passed into the fourth round. Although the Swiss had to sweat his victory over Mariano Zabaleta, at least in comparison to his previous encounters, where there were no doubts about the outcome of World No. 1 games. Federer won the first set, and it looked like he was going to win the second one too. He was leading 5:3 on his serves. Usually, he never makes any errors at such times. But he let Zabaleta get a break point, and then gave it to him by making a double fault. That was not the end of it, however – he lost another serve at the 11th game, and consequently lost the set. Therefore, Zabaleta was able to do the impossible – win a game twice on Federer’s serve. However, the Swiss did not give up and showed what he was worth. “Mariano made me nervous. He did play strongly, and shook my confidence rather seriously. But thankfully, I’ve found a way to beat him,” Federer said after the match.
Afsati Dzhusoiti
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 30, 2005
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