A new season in tennis began triumphantly for Russian players. Ekaterina Alexandrova won the tournament in Shenzhen, and Andrei Rublev won the competition in Doha. The last time the Russians won the WTA and ATP titles in one week in 2018 during the Moscow Kremlin Cup.
The long-awaited triumph of Alexandrova
Before the start of this season, Ekaterina Alexandrova demonstrated that she was in good shape. At the end of December, she won the 125K Series tournament in Limoges for the third time, and then went to Shenzhen to open the new WTA Tour. There, a native of Chelyabinsk was prepared for the fifth seeding number and good prospects to finally win the first professional victory.
The tournament began for the second racket of Russia with a working victory over the Czech Katerina Sinyakova with a score of 6: 4, 6: 4. In the second round, Alexandrova was opposed by the main veteran of Chinese tennis Peng Shuai. After three lost starting games, she managed to win five in a row and make the Russian woman nervous. But she switched the game to a tie-break, played one setball and reduced the efforts of the Chinese woman to nothing. In the next set, the Russian woman gave only one game.
In the quarterfinals, Alexandrova again opposed a rival from China, only now it was seeded under the fourth number Wang Qiang. She immediately led with a break with a score of 4: 1 and thanks to a double mistake, the Russians at the decisive moment took the first set. Wang Qiang tried to develop success and immediately again took Alexandrova's serve, but at that moment the 25-year-old tennis player opened her second wind. She quickly recouped and made a break herself, almost won the game on someone else's serve and still did it on her own. Just as quickly, she dealt with a rival in the decisive set, issuing an exit to the semifinals.
Having knocked out the last Chinese tennis players from the net, Alexandrova collided with Garbinier Mugurusa. The only match between them was held at Wimbledon in 2017, which was victorious for the Spaniard. Two and a half years later, the Russian woman took revenge, and pretty confident. Neither in the first nor in the second set, Aleksandrova did not have problems with the pitch, and after winning one game she led with a double break in the next. Mugurusa tried to reduce the gap, but it was too late - the Russian woman reached the final of the WTA tournament for the second time in her career after a similar achievement in Linz in 2018.
In the title match, Aleksandrova opposed the former representative of Russia Elena Rybakina, now playing for Kazakhstan. At the age of 20, she played in her third final in six months and hoped to raise a second trophy over her head over her career.
But the plans of the young Muscovite had to change when Alexandrova immediately won four games. The first set was left to the Russian woman, but in the second she had to recoup from the score 2: 4. A native of Chelyabinsk at that moment showed her character by managing to keep her feed and earning three break points in the next game, when Rybakina lost her nerve and made a double mistake. It was a turning point in the final - Alexandrova took two more games and became the first triumph of the new season.
“The whole week from the very beginning has developed well for me. It was not easy, but I did it all the way to the very end. I won my first title, and this is an amazing feeling. The first title is always special. I played in my second final. The first ended unsuccessfully, so I tried to win this one, ”the Russian woman said after the match.
The winning streak of Aleksandrova has already reached ten matches. Even before the finals, she secured the title of Russia's first racket, overtaking Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and after it guaranteed her highest 26th place in the WTA ranking and getting into the number of seeders at the upcoming Australian Open. This tournament will be the next for a 25-year-old tennis player.
Victory Compensation for Rublev
In the first week of the men's tennis season, most tennis players ended up in Australia at the first ATP Cup. Although the competitions caused some criticism among the players, they still could earn up to 750 rating points and good prize money. However, not everyone received invitations to this tournament - only the first two rackets from the countries included in the list of participants could participate. The rest had to go to the tournament in Doha, where the winner could only count on 250 points.
Such an alternative had to be content, for example, Andrei Rublev, the 23rd racket of the world. One of the heroes of the recent Davis Cup draw could again benefit the Russian national team, but apart from Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov, no one else could participate in singles, and the 22-year-old tennis player clearly did not like it.
“I think the organizers of the APR Sup need to change something, because it’s so dishonest. Some guys go in the ninth hundred or take the 1000th line, but they can earn points. In half the countries I would be the first racket, in all I would definitely be in the top 2. And in the end, I can’t play, because I don’t get among the leading players, ”Rublev told Tennis Head.
In such an offensive situation, the player had only one thing - to fight for maximum points in Doha, as he did two years ago, when he reached the final. The Russians could help in this second seeding number, which helped to avoid meeting with the main favorite Stan Wavrinka from Switzerland until the title match.
In the first ATP round match in two months, Rublev met with a challenging opponent - Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan, to whom he lost three times in four meetings. However, the next game of the former Russian and the current one passed quite quickly. Rublev won with a score of 6: 4, 6: 2 in 69 minutes, only once giving his pitch.
The first match of the year gave confidence to the 22-year-old tennis player, and in fights with Frenchman Pierre-South Erber and Serb Miomir Ketsmanovich, he also did not lose a single game, spending a total of two and a half hours on the court. So Rublev reached the final, where the Frenchman Korenten Mute unexpectedly became his rival. The 20-year-old player made a sensation, going from qualifying to winning the fourth seeded Milos Raonic, Fernando Verdasco and Stan Wavrinka, although he had not even reached the semi-finals of ATP tournaments before.
Mute seemed to have no strength for the finals. In the first set, Rublev completely dominated the court and won the game in 31 minutes, ending it with a triple setball on someone else's serve. But during the break, both tennis players asked for medical help - the Frenchman took the pill, and the Russian visited a physiotherapist. Rublev then won three games in a row, but then slowed down his progress and in the end he himself allowed Muta to make a reverse break.
The balance in the second set was restored and was not broken before the tie-break. At this exciting moment, Rublev’s nerves were stronger - he immediately won four points, earned five match balls and realized the third of them. The new season began for the Kremlin Cup winner with a third career title and a nice bonus - on January 13, a Russian will break into the first twenty of the ATP rating for the first time and take 19th place.
Rublev rules in Doha!
🇷🇺 @ AndreyRublev97 has defeated Moutet 6-2 7-6 (3) to win the @QatarTennis 🏆pic.twitter.com / 3xsLJF5ocI