Russian tennis player Elina Avanesyan defeated world No. 12 Belinda Bencic in three games at Roland Garros

The main surprise of the first two days of the French Open, which continues in Paris, was presented by Russian Elina Avanesyan, who got into the main draw at the last moment, despite the defeat in the qualifying final. The victory in three games over the 12th racket of the world, the Swiss Olympic champion Belinda Bencic on the second most important court of Roland Garros, was the loudest success in the career of the 20-year-old tennis player, who currently occupies only 134th place in the world ranking. With details from Paris – Kommersant correspondent Evgeny Fedyakov.

This amazing match, which took place on the 10,000-seat Suzanne Lenglen court, the second largest at the Roland Garros stadium, ended with the first match point. Russian Elina Avanesyan, whose name was known only to the most advanced tennis fans before the start of the game, collected her thoughts, took a deep breath and performed an accurate oblique serve, to which Belinda Bencic could not find an exact answer. Thus, the main sensation of the women’s tournament was born. Of course, it was known that the most experienced Swiss, who is consistently in the top twenty of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rating, won the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, and last season led her team to victory in the Billie Jean King Cup team tournament, traditionally is having problems at the French Open and has also missed most of the current clay season due to a leg injury.

But still, few people expected such an outcome. After all, Avanesyan in Paris was not even able to qualify and got into the main draw only after another participant withdrew from the tournament at the last moment.

Prior to this, the main achievement in the career of the Russian woman was the recent victory at the clay tournament in Wiesbaden, Germany with a prize fund of $100,000, and at the WTA level she played a few matches.

There were moments in the third set when it seemed that things would not come to a sensation. Bencic led – 4:2, and with a score of 4:4 she won back four break points. But the decisive points still remained for Avanesyan, who won in 2 hours and 19 minutes – 6:3, 2:6, 6:4. After the game, the heroine of the day, of course, shone with happiness and, in the unusual atmosphere of the press center of a major tournament, shared some details of her biography with the SE correspondent.

Elina Avanesyan was born and joined tennis in Pyatigorsk, where her parents moved from Armenia. From the age of 12, she trained in Moscow with Artem Derepasko, and two years ago she left for Spain. There, the Russian woman changed her base in Alicante to an academy in Valencia, where her personal trainer Maria José Yorka is now working with her, who at one time performed at the level of the second hundred of the world classification. True, Avanesyan now has a good chance to significantly surpass the maximum rating of his mentor. After all, the victory over Bencic brought her close to the top 100.

In the second round, Avanesyan’s rival will be the same little-known tennis player as she is the 124th racket of the world, Frenchwoman Leolia Zhanzhan, who received a wild card. From a psychological point of view, the Russian woman will have a completely different match. It is not clear how the outburst of emotions after the victory over Bencic will affect her game, besides, they support their own people in Paris in a special way.

Nevertheless, Avanesyan’s success fits perfectly into the trend that emerged in the first two days of Roland Garros.

By the time this issue was signed, all 13 Russian players who had completed their opening matches had entered the second round. Among them are last year’s semi-finalist Daria Kasatkina, and the real contenders for reaching at least the quarterfinals Andrei Rublev and Karen Khachanov, who took the start on Sunday, and Aslan Karatsev, who continues to gain momentum after a long decline. On Monday, he defeated the Australian Alexei Popyrin in four sets.

Evgeny Fedyakov