Russians Win the Kremlin
First time in history of the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament, Moscow, only the Russians were playing in both finals. Teenager Anna Chakvetadze sprang a surprise by a shocking win over the tournament’s fifth seed Nadia Petrova, while top seed and world No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko overwhelmed Marat Safin en route to the title.
There had been two Russian winners once in history of this tournament. In 2004, the trophy went to Anastasia Myskina and Nikolay Davydenko. But this year’s tournament will be remembered for the total finals of Russia.
Moreover, the women finalists of the Kremlin Cup were not the tournament’s frontrunners. The biggest names – Amelie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva - were unable to advance and the decisive battle was played by Anna Chakvetadze, 19, and Nadia Petrova.
In-form Chakvetadze joined the tennis elite only this season. She continued her superb run in Moscow by ending the Kremlin Cup hopes of injured Nadia Petrova (6-4 6-4) and earning $196,000 as a result. The teenager, who won in Guangzhou two weeks ago, will joint the top 20 after the Kremlin Cup.
The victory of top seed Nikolay Davydenko wasn’t sensation of course. But the battle was tough. “I hoped to play Marat in the final,” Davydenko said after the match. Before Kremlin Cup, he had lost twice to Safin on the hard court this year but won the last meeting on clay.
Yesterday Davydenko took the opening set but lost the second one mostly on errors. He was leading 3:0 in the decider, when Safin finally recovered. Marat won Davydenko’s serve and came through the three-time match ball at his serve, but Nikolay was stronger that day and overwhelmed the opponent (6-4 5-7 6-4). “I was more concentrated,” the world number five said after the match explaining the $142,000 victory.
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All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 16, 2006
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