“2 silver medals at the Beach Tennis World Championship is a very worthy result”

Polina Soldatenkova from Sochi won 2 silver medals at the World Beach Tennis Championship in Terracina, Italy. Together with a Muscovite Sofia Romanova, she became the finalist of the tournament among girls, and in the mixed doubles, together with Miron Kudrin from Tolyatti, she also became the second, losing in the final to another pair from Russia.

Her coach spoke about the performance of the athlete Ruslan Dovgal.

– The main selection took place at the Russian Championship, and the results were seen during the season. Polina with her partner was third at the Russian championship. It so happened that in Terracina they had to play with those two Russian couples that they were bypassed in the internal selection. Polina and Sophia reached the peak of their form when needed and proved that they are the best couple in the country. The competitions were held according to the Olympic system – in case of loss, the couple dropped out. The girls won 3 matches and advanced to the final. There they were opposed by a mixed pair from Italy and Brazil. A year ago, we lost to them in the semi-finals of the world championship. Now it turned out to be a stubborn battle, there was great support from the Russian delegation, but, alas, a little was not enough. The opponents won 6:4, defended their title 6:4. Also, the girls took part in the tournament among professional athletes and showed one of the best results of the Russian team, – said the specialist.

… Not in every sport Russian athletes are admitted to international competitions, but in tennis there is no such problem.

We didn’t have any problems getting permission. There was a whole Russian delegation at the tournament, since both the World Championship and championships for different ages were held at the same time. The only thing we were reminded was that officially we did not represent Russia, but for ourselves, that is, we were in a neutral status, so it was impossible to demonstrate the symbols of the country. But these are the general rules that the International Tennis Federation has established. And so everything was friendly on the part of the organizers and participants from other countries.

Ruslan Dovgal summed up the results of the competition in the mixed category.

– In the mixed doubles, Polina and Miron had 5 meetings. Before the final there were difficult matches, I had to play a decisive tie-break in one of them. Both partners also played together in the final of the world championship in pairs, so, unfortunately, they did not have enough strength for the decisive match in the mixed doubles. In any case, I think that 2 silver medals is a very good result. There can be no claims. Next year, Polina will not be able to compete in juniors according to her age, we completed this stage at a high and decent level. We will try to work and reach new heights at a professional level.