The women’s tournament couldn’t do without a man – Kommersant FM
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Russian tennis player Mirra Andreeva had to play in the final against a man. This happened at an exhibition tournament in the French town of Bourg-de-Page. The athlete’s opponent was supposed to be Marta Kostyuk from Ukraine, but she refused to participate in the decisive match due to the geopolitical context. As a result, she was replaced in the final game by 23-year-old Yanis Ghazouani Duran, a tennis player ranked in the second thousand in the world men’s ranking.
It was necessary to look for an opponent for Mirra Andreeva at the very last moment, and it turned out to be not easy, said Kommersant FM’s own correspondent in France, Daria Zlotnikova: “For the organizers, the decision of the Ukrainian tennis player was relatively unexpected, although, of course, it was to be expected that the same geopolitical context will make changes to the final match. After all, in any case, the Ukrainian would have to play with one of the Russians who met in the semifinals. Mirra Andreeva eventually reached the final stage of the tournament.
And in order to play it, the organizers had to urgently look for a replacement; they called almost all tennis players of more or less similar level and those who would agree to play in this tournament. Still, he is not the most famous in the tennis world.
But it was not possible to find a replacement in the women’s category, so I had to turn to male tennis players for help. As a result, Andreeva played the final match against 23-year-old Yanis Gazuani Duran, who happened to be nearby.
He performed successfully in the final and even won the match. Despite this, the champion title was still awarded to Mirra Andreeva, since she was the only tennis player who reached the final and finished this championship.”
Such stories happen extremely rarely in world tennis. True, something similar did happen nine years ago, but then the geopolitical context had nothing to do with it, and one male player had to be replaced with another, Kommersant correspondent Evgeny Fedyakov recalled:
“The story with Mirra Andreeva is, of course, quite funny. The tournament was an exhibition, no rating points were awarded for it. In this case, the organizers needed the spectators who bought tickets for the match in this small city to receive some kind of compensation.
Why was this particular Frenchman found? Apparently, there really was no one else around: it’s the off-season, many players are either on vacation or preparing for new starts somewhere in warmer climes.
Of course, such situations are very rare. The final of the final tournament in London 2014 comes to mind, that is, this is the culmination of the ATP season, when Novak Djokovic was supposed to play with Roger Federer. The latter withdrew from this match because in a few days he had to play in the Davis Cup final. And the Serb had to have such an entertaining meeting with Andy Murray. At the same time, the organizers then met the spectators who demanded a refund for the ticket.”
Mirra Andreeva is 16 years old. She is ranked 57th in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, which, by the way, recognized the Russian woman Rookie of the Year.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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