Tennis players again take in numbers – Newspaper Kommersant No. 198 (7399) of 10/25/2022

According to the results of the season approaching the finish line, Russian tennis players, acting under the decision of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) under a neutral flag, have significantly improved their positions at the top of the world rankings. Two of them at once – Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova – will finish the year in the top ten, while Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Lyudmila Samsonova made it into the top twenty. There are currently nine Russians in the top hundred, and in this indicator they are second only to Americans.

Over the past few years, Russian tennis players have been in the shadow of their compatriots – Daniil Medvedev, Andrei Rublev and Karen Khachanov. Russian women’s victories in WTA tournaments were quite rare, although 2021 gave hope for a revival. Then Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova achieved a real breakthrough, reaching the finals of Roland Garros, and at the very finish of the previous season, the Russian team won a brilliant victory in the Billie Jean King Cup, a competition that has the status of a world team championship.

And now there is a continuation. Pavlyuchenkova, however, back in mid-May had to announce about the early completion of performances this year due to a knee injury, but the total number of titles won by Russian tennis players increased from four to nine compared to last season. The last of them a week ago at the 250 category tournament was won by Anna Blinkova in Romanian Cluj-Napoca, and before that Lyudmila Samsonova (Washington, Cleveland, Tokyo) won three victories, Daria Kasatkina (San Jose, Granby) and Ekaterina Alexandrova won two each ( ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Seoul) and one – Anastasia Potapova (Istanbul), who has been coached by the captain of the Russian team Igor Andreev for more than one month.

And even if all these WTA grading competitions are not among the most prestigious, in 2022 the Russian indicator will certainly be considered a record.

Only Polish tennis players can repeat it – more precisely, the first racket of the world, Iga Swiatek, who has won eight titles since February and is considered the main favorite of the final WTA Finals tournament, which will be held from October 31 to November 7 in Fort Worth (Texas).

To this list of Russian achievements, of course, one should add the quarterfinals of Roland Garros between Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova, as a result of which Kasatkina got into the top four at the Grand Slam tournament for the first time. In addition, Kudermetova played three finals (Melbourne, Dubai, Istanbul), Anastasia Potapova reached the decisive stage in Prague, and Anna Kalinskaya last week made it to the quarterfinals of the 1000 category for the first time in Guadalajara. The result of all this was a noticeable improvement in the positions of Russian women in the world rankings (see reference). Two of them were in the top ten at once, which has not happened since 2011. Moreover, Kasatkina will play in the final tournament for the first time, having the opportunity to climb into the top five, and Kudermetova will be the first spare there. Aleksandrova and Samsonova finish the season in the top twenty, which they have never managed to do before. Potapova, who has established herself in the first fifty, and Kalinskaya, who is at a small distance from her, also occupy their highest positions. In total, there are nine Russians in the top hundred, one more than last year, and at the end of the final tournament their number will not change there. According to this indicator, they are second only to American women, who in two weeks in the top 100, according to preliminary estimates, will be 14 people. The third largest representation – eight tennis players – there are Czechs.

It is clear that there have been more successful times in the history of domestic women’s tennis. For example, in 2004 and 2009, three of its representatives were among the top five, and in 2008 the Russian one was exactly half of the top ten. But that unique period, which was the result of the appearance of a whole generation of talented Russian women on the WTA Tour, was left far behind. Now Russian fans can only dream of something like this, especially since the progress of young people, who since March have not been able to participate in junior and adult competitions of a lower level as often as necessary, is noticeably slowing down.

Evgeny Fedyakov