Three Russians – Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Roman Safiullin – reached the 1/4 finals

This year at Wimbledon, which continues in London, three Russians will play at once in the quarterfinals of the men’s singles for the first time. This became clear after Andrei Rublev and Roman Safiullin were joined at this stage by Daniil Medvedev, whose rival Czech Jiri Legechka, after completing the second set, refused to continue the fight due to injury. The next opponent of Medvedev unexpectedly became the debutant of the London Major American Christopher Eubanks.

In the history of the Grand Slam tournaments before the current Wimbledon, there was only one case when three Russian tennis players managed to reach the quarterfinals in the men’s singles at once. It happened two years ago at the Australian Open, where Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev were suddenly joined at this advanced stage by Aslan Karatsev, who was just starting his upward movement in the world classification. Since then, the Russians have come closest to this achievement at last year’s US Open, where Karen Khachanov was in the semi-finals, Andrei Rublev in the quarter-finals, and Daniil Medvedev was eliminated in the fourth round. But the fact that the record will be repeated right now at Wimbledon is highly unexpected. Firstly, the grass major for Russian men has always been considered the most problematic. Previously, only Evgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin (twice), Mikhail Youzhny and Karen Khachanov reached the quarterfinals. Secondly, Khachanov now needed a break due to a stress fracture of the lower spine, and he could not come to London.

The key factor that provided the current unexpected result, of course, was the sensational breakthrough of the 92nd racket of the world, Roman Safiullin.

Rublev and Daniil Medvedev, by and large, are just confirming their class, acting quite steadily and solidly. Medvedev’s next opponent on Monday was Jiri Legechka, a relatively new face in the top fifty. The 21-year-old Czech got there by reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, and in London, after defeating two representatives of the top 20 – Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo and American Tommy Paul – was one step away from repeating this achievement.

Legechka showed his art of grass tennis at the very beginning of the meeting with Medvedev, when he served hard and was not afraid to go to the net, where he played a couple of times from a half-fly. However, as such, there was practically no intrigue in the game, since at the beginning of the first game the Russian immediately made a break, and after it ended, Legechka, who had problems with his right leg, called the doctor to the court. In this case, medicine was powerless. Having lost the second set as well, the Czech congratulated the Russian on his first appearance in the Wimbledon quarter-finals. And an hour later it turned out that Medvedev would have to play there not with the fifth racket of the world, Stefanos Tsitsipas, as many expected, but with the American Christopher Eubanks, who beat the Greek in five games. This slender, six-foot-tall tennis player made it to the Wimbledon main draw for the first time and is demonstrating a very risky but so far highly effective grass tennis game. What’s more, Eubanks’ unbeaten streak has already reached nine matches, as he flew to Wimbledon from Mallorca, where he took his first ATP title in the same extreme attacking style on the first day of July.

And Monday began at Wimbledon with a match in which 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva was very close to reaching the quarterfinals.

For about one and a half sets, the most experienced American Madison Keys did not understand how to deal with the young Russian woman, who acted extremely calmly and confidently. Andreev’s trademark left-hand blow along the line, with which she repeatedly responded to her opponent’s attacks, clearly got on the nerves of Keys, who made a large number of unforced errors, lost the first set and was inferior in the second game 1:4 and 30:40 on her serve. But then the American finally managed to find the rhythm of her tight attacking blows, among which a powerful reverse cross stood out, and Andreeva, apparently, lost her concentration a little, and soon the situation in the game equalized. On the tie-break, Keys immediately went ahead, Andreeva caught up with her, but the last three points still remained with the American. And after the Russian did not convert a break point in the first game of the third installment, the finalist of the US Open in 2017 has finally taken possession of the psychological advantage.

The ending for Andreeva turned out to be very upsetting. In the last, eighth game, when the score was “exactly”, Andreeva slipped slightly and, awkwardly waving her right hand, dropped the racket, as a result of which she received a remark from the judge on the tower, who found signs of unruly behavior in the actions of the Russian woman. Since this was the second such remark, Andreeva was deprived of one point and Keys received a match point. The Wimbledon debutante tried to argue, but this, of course, did not help, and, having lost in the final draw, she did not shake hands with the referee on the tower. Despite this defeat, unfortunate and somewhat instructive, Mirra Andreeva had an excellent tournament. Thanks to this, in a week she will rise from her current 102nd place in the ranking to the 65th position and thanks to this, the next Grand Slam championship, the US Open, will start for the first time not from qualification, but immediately in the main draw.

Finished on Monday at this tournament and Ekaterina Aleksandrova – the last of the Russian tennis players in singles. Having spent almost the entire first set on equal terms against the second racket of the world, the champion of the Australian Open Belarusian Arina Sabolenko, she suddenly fell apart and gave up the second set dry. Nevertheless, in general, Alexandrova can also be satisfied with her performance: after all, for the first time in her career, she reached the 1/8 finals in the majors.

Evgeny Fedyakov