Argentine’s team and their number one David Nalbandian are in the way for Marat Safin (left) and his teammates to win Russia’s second Davis Cup.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Russian Tennis Squad Up to Beat Argentina’s Mascot
// Diego Maradona comes to Moscow to root for Argentina in the Davis Cup final
Russian tennis has good chances to win another landmark victory on Sunday. The victory would be unprecedented as Russia has never won the Davis Cup on its home turf. To make it real, Russia’s men will have to beat the Argentines who will not agree to give up at Moscow’s Olimpiysky Stadium.
At the draw on Thursday the Russian and Argentinean teams were posing by the Davis Cup trophy which could have been Russian tennis’ very first major victory long time ago. It could have happened before Evgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin won their first Grand Slam tournaments for Russia, before they topped the ATP rating in the late 1990s and even before Russian ladies broke through, bringing to Moscow an array of single and team titles with intentions to stop.
Back in the mid-1990s, Russia could not boast players able to fight for the first rank, but Russia had a brilliant men’s team. In 1994, Russia reached its first Davis Cup final, hosting Sweden in Moscow. Those who did not see the match and have read about the final without any details may think that Sweden with Stefan Edberg had an easy ride. Nothing of the kind. All the wins were achieved with great efforts –two singles and the doubles after which they received congratulations on Saturday. The three matches were five-set see-saw games. It was a final of equal rivals where somewhat wider experience of the Swedes or pure luck played the trick.
One year later, the Russian squad was again there, one step away from the Davis Cup after the legendary victory over Germany in semi-finals when Andrey Chesnokov had bounced back after nine match points. Russia had another chance to host the decider in Moscow. This time Russia was playing the American team crowned with Pete Sampras. Looking at the statistics one may say again that Russia was not in the same class as the US, and the Americans had a good walkover with Russia, winning three out of the first four matches. Sampras would be laughing at this assumption. He must be still remembering how he was carried off court in a state of near-exhaustion after the first singe against Andrey Chesnokov. The great American had enough patience to wait and seal the victory only to score the triumph in two other encounters – in the Saturday doubles and a Sunday game against Evgeny Kafelnikov. Just like the previous time, Russia had chances to win.
Russia carried off the legendary trophy in the third attempt, six years after, on the rival’s turf, though. The Russians had had bad luck in Moscow before but Paris made up for it. France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu probably still has it in his mind how he thought that the obscure Mikhail Yuzhny, who was playing in for Kafelnikov, was unable to keep on fighting after giving away two sets. But Yuzhny, due to Tarpishchev’s keen intuition, rose, snatching the Cup from France.
This is the odd and dramatic history of Russian campaigns to win the Davis Cup, the trophy which is largely believed to go to the hosting party. Marat Safin keeps in mind the statistics. He admitted before the match he is a bit worried about it. “I wouldn’t like to pay for our win in Paris here in Moscow…” he said.
One could presume that there is nothing playing against Russia in this final apart from this three-match tradition of winning abroad and losing at home. In terms of personal rankings, Russia can be placed higher than Argentina. Nikolay Davydenko is the world’s third-best player and Marat Safin is number 26 while David Nalbandian is ranked eight and Juan Ignacio Chela is the 33rd. Argentina’s doubles do not look menacing either. In contrast to them, Russia’s Mikhail Yuzhny and Dmitry Tursunov showed some good tennis against the world’s number one Michael and Bob Bryan in the Cup semi-final against the United States. What is more, there is Safin to make progress at any moment.
The surface reminds the one at the Kremlin Cup this year where the final match brought together Nikolay Davydenko and Marat Safin. Are there any reasons to think that the Argentines, even with the universal David Nalbandian who likes slow courts, would feel any easier than those foreign players at the Kremlin Cup?
There are some more observations in favor of Russia. Experience of Russia’s team captain Shamil Tarpishchev is unmatched to that of Alberto Mancini, his counterpart. Another pleasant thing to note, Nikolay Davydenko was genuinely surprised when asked for the umpteenth time if his wedding last Saturday would be a hindrance in his training. Indeed, why would that be a hindrance, when neither he nor other players had any bad partying there? Marat Safin displayed particular confidence explaining to the press why he had wanted to step onto the court on Friday second, after Nikolay Davydenko. “Kolya [Davydenko] has better chances to beat Chela, and we are favorites in the doubles,” he said. “I want Nalbandian to feel some pressure. If Nikolay beats Chela, Nalbandian will be feeling the pressure, plus he’ll also be playing doubles. It will be good for me. He will realize the stakes in this tie will be higher. It will be easier for me. Hopefully we can finish it off in two days.”
The latter statement is paradoxical for any final match, especially for a Davis Cup one where players prefer to give more than rough forecasts.
However, Russia looks an odds-on favorite only at first sight. The situation is not so easy. Take the single between Juan Ignacio Chela and Nikolay Davydenko where the Russians are sure for some reason that their teammate will win. Naturally, Alberto Mancini explained that he had picked the players because of their present state they showed at sessions in Moscow. Nonsense. Alberto Mancini had chosen Chela but not the more stable Jose Acasuso because he perfectly knew that Chela had played Davydenko five times, winning all the matches. Things like that are not to be sneezed at in tennis.
David Nalbandian seems a rather comfortable rival to play with for Marat Safin as the Russian defended him in six out of eight matches. However, Nalbandian beat Safin in their lat match in late October at a Masters tournament in Madrid.
Alberto Mancini was smiling as he was speaking about the surface at the Olimpiysky. “This is naturally not the surface that we would have had if we were hosting the final,” he said. “But keep in mind that the season ends with indoor tournaments where our players played as well. So we’ve had plenty of time to get used to carpet, and Moscow has given us another chance to.”
Russia is not in for an easy home show. To make things more dramatic, the legendary soccer player Diego Maradona has come to Moscow to root for his countrymen. Now Russia should brace itself for another Moscow Davis Cup thriller with Argentine’s mascot, Maradona, watching.
Alexey Dospekhov
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 01, 2006
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