Third defeat of Kudermetova from Halep

The new tennis season began for Russian athletes not only with the ATP Cup, where Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin almost made it to the decisive stage. At the beginning of the year, there were also several warm-up tournaments before the Australian Open, in two of which the Russians reached the finals. In Melbourne, Veronica Kudermetova contested the title in a match with Romanian Simona Halep, and Karen Khachanov fought with Frenchman Gael Monfils in Adelaide.

In the WTA tour, Kudermetova is known primarily as a doubles player. Last season, she, together with Elena Vesnina, reached the Wimbledon final and took fourth place at the Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old also provided invaluable service to the Russian national team, winning three matches in the Billie Jean King Cup. But in the singles category Kudermetova has recently achieved considerable success - in January 2021 she reached the final of the tournament in Dubai, and in April she won in Charleston.

The Kazan native started the new season with one of two tournaments in Melbourne, the winner of which gets 250 points in the WTA ranking. Kudermetova received the third seed and hardly justified this status - none of her first three victories could be called easy. The Russian woman beat Slovakia's Victoria Kuzhmova in two tie-breaks, and then played three games each with American Madison Brengle and compatriot Anastasia Potapova. Naomi Osaka's injury allowed her to take a breath - the Japanese seeded first number withdrew from the semifinals due to injury and let Kudermetova go further.

The rival in the final was the former first racket of the world Simona Halep.

With her, Kudermetova had a not very pleasant history of meetings - both times last year the Romanian took the upper hand.

This happened at the Australian Open and at the Kremlin Cup.

Moreover, both times Halep won the first set with a score of 6: 1.

The new fight began somewhat differently.

The Russian woman was able to make a break in the third game, waiting for a double error from her opponent.

But then Kudermetova herself lost too many points on her serve.

Khalep seized the moment and then won four more games in a row, without putting much effort for this - there were too many unsuccessful actions on the part of the Russian woman.

Halep cruising to take the first set 6-2!

A set away from the title 🏆 # MelbourneTennispic.twitter.com / 3GapVpXAD6

- wta (@WTA) January 9, 2022

The second set also began encouragingly for Kudermetova - she made a break.

Holding her serve, the Russian woman then earned a break point three times, but Halep withstood this onslaught and brought the game to victory, and then made a reverse break.

For some time Kudermetova tried to maintain an equal level of play, but in the eighth game, unforced mistakes again became frequent on her part (in just a match she made them 27 times).

After that, the Romanian came out to apply for the title and won the last game dry.

Halep won her 23rd career title in one hour and 14 minutes.

🇷🇴 SI-MO-NA 🇷🇴



It's a 23rd career title for @simona_halep!

🏆 pic.twitter.com/rsCtFmK6Xe

- wta (@WTA) January 9, 2022

Khachanov's long pursuit of the final

For Karen Khachanov, the new season could begin with the ATP Cup, where his help would be very useful to the national team.

But he did not qualify for the ranked team and went to the tournament in Adelaide, where he received the second seed.

When Andrei Rublev and Aslan Karatsev vacated their seat due to illness, it was too late to reapply.

In the individual tournament, Khachanov performed more successfully than the national team at the ATP Cup.

On the way to the final, he beat American Steve Johnson, Belarusian Yegor Gerasimov and Croat Marina Chilich.

The victory over the latter was especially important for the Russian - Khachanov took revenge for two previous defeats, one of which happened in St. Petersburg in 2021.

Entering the decisive match in Adelaide was not an ordinary event for the 25-year-old tennis player. Despite the fact that he has been in the top 30 of the world rankings for several years now, Khachanov last played in the final of the ATP tournament back in 2018, when he won the Masters in Paris. Accordingly, the Russian did not have titles for more than three years. To interrupt this unsuccessful streak, he had to beat the Frenchman Gael Monfils, who led the seed in Adelaide.

In the first set, tennis players, who had never met on the court before, showed an equal game mainly due to the service, which was going very well for both. Khachanov once managed to earn a double break point, but Monfils saved the game thanks to the Russian's mistake and his hit on the line. It was quite logical to play the game in a tie-break, but in the tenth game Khachanov still gave up. His first double fault in the match allowed the Frenchman to counterattack and earn a set point. It was not immediately realized, and the game began to continue until one of the tennis players made two mistakes in a row. This player turned out to be Khachanov.

Monfils did not leave Khachanov a single chance to recoup in the second game.

On serving, he was simply unstoppable - in five of his games, the 35-year-old Frenchman gave only two points.

The Russian again had to endure until the tie-break, but the second set repeated the scenario of the first.

Only now Khachanov allowed his opponent to earn two match points on his serve.

He saved the first of them, but made a mistake on the second after Monfils with difficulty pulled the ball from the back line.

The Russians finished the opening week of the tennis season without titles.

The moment @Gael_Monfils claimed his first title Down Under!

🏆 # AdelaideTennispic.twitter.com / UpBIt9f8nA

- Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 9, 2022