Rehabilitation attempt: which Russian tennis players to watch out for this week

This week the attention of Russian tennis fans is focused on Doha and Marseille. In the capital of Qatar, four Russian women, including the country's first and third runners-up Daria Kasatkina and Mirra Andreeva, continue their fight for the prestigious "thousandaire". In France, Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov will fight for the trophy. The longtime leader of our tennis has had a bad start to the new season, but he may well rehabilitate himself in Marseille, where he is seeded number one and has already won this tournament in 2021. Last week was remembered for the triumph of Anastasia Potapova at the tournament in Romania.

Third title

Potapova was the number one seed in Cluj-Napoca, so she was given a relatively easy net. At the Transylvania Open, the Saratov native did not play a single seeded player. In 1/16 finals she beat Julia Graber from Austria in two sets, in 1/8 - Swiss Victoria Golubovich, in the quarterfinals she gave only five games to German Ella Seidel, and in the semifinals she stopped the representative of Belarus Aliaksandra Sosnovich in just over an hour.

Bronzetti's path to the final was much tougher on names, but she also didn't lose a set. In the first round she defeated former world number one Simona Halep (it turned out to be the last match in the career of the two-time TBS champion), then knocked out third seed Peyton Stearns from the USA, and in the quarterfinals she defeated her compatriot Elisabetta Cocciaretto. In the semifinals Lucia played against Katerina Siniakova, but the match did not last long. The Czech tennis player withdrew in the first set, losing 4:0.

The final was a serious test for Bronzetti, given that she had previously lost all four of her head-to-head matches against Potapova. The Italian was clearly determined to break this streak and produced a superb first game. In the opening games, she easily took her serve and looked great on serve. Potapova had to win two break points in her two games. It was good that at that moment the first serve came to the rescue. In the fifth game, the Russian finally took her serve with confidence and then broke (4:2). However, it was not possible to keep the advantage. Lucia earned a third break point with a beautiful short game and already in the next game she made a break back. In the seventh game Potapova again had an opportunity to take her opponent's serve, but she failed to realize two break points. After that, Bronzetti was unstoppable. She won the remaining two games with great confidence.

Anastasia left the court for a few minutes and was able to reset very well in the back court. After that Potapova left no chance to the Italian, confidently taking the next two sets (6:1, 6:2). Interestingly, Belinda Bencic took the title in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, February 8, under a similar scenario. The Tokyo Olympic champion lost the first set to Ashlyn Kruger (6:4), but then also defeated her opponent (6:1, 6:1).

For Potapova, this is the third title of her career and the first since February 2023. It's a pity that, being in such a great shape, Anastasia withdrew from the tournament in Doha. She was replaced by compatriot Polina Kudermetova in the main draw.

Two "sheep"

However, for Polina, who played with Daria Kasatkina as a lackey loser, the match turned out to be very bad. She couldn't take a single game against the world No. 12 (Daria won the match with two strokes for the second time in her career, having previously managed to do so last year at Wimbledon). In the next round Daria will meet former Russian Elina Avetisyan, who has represented Armenia since last year. Also on Monday, February 10, Polina's older sister Veronika Kudermetova took to the Qatar Open-2025 courts. The winner of 10 WTA tournaments met Magda Linette. In a hard-fought rivalry it came down to the deciding set, in which the Polish tennis player managed to squeeze the Russian. Next Linette will play with her compatriot Magdalena Frenh.

Ekaterina Alexandrova, Lyudmila Samsonova and Mirra Andreeva will also compete for a place in the 1/8 finals. The most difficult opponent will be the champion of Linz-2025 - Alexandrova will have to play with the world number one Arina Sobolenko. In head-to-head meetings the score is 4:3 in favor of the Belarusian, who won the last two matches.

- Of course, it will be a difficult test," Alexandrova shared her thoughts about the upcoming duel after her victory over Emma Raducanu. - Arina plays amazing, she is a top-level player. I lost to her at the US Open last year in three sets, so maybe I'll have a chance. We'll see.

Samsonova will face Roland Garros 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia (2-2 in head-to-head matches), while Andreeva will face Rebecca Šramková. The Slovakian representative defeated Angelina Kalinina of Ukraine in the first round.

A chance for the Russians

The last time Medvedev won at least two matches in a row was at the Shanghai Masters. In early October 2024, he reached the quarterfinals, where he lost to Yannick Sinner. After that, Daniil lost in the first round of the Paris Masters, lost two of his three matches at the ATP Finals group stage, and was eliminated in the second round of the Australian Open and Rotterdam. In Melbourne and the Netherlands, the Russian lost to noticeably inferior opponents (Lerner Thien and Mattia Bellucci).

In Marseille there is an opportunity to rehabilitate himself. If it goes without surprises, Daniil should have no serious problems before the semifinals (although initially the grid was so distributed that in the 1/4 the Russian was likely to play with Giovanni Mpetshi Perrikar, but the owner of one of the most powerful serves in the tour withdrew from the tournament). In the 1/2, Daniil may well play against compatriot Karen Khachanov, seeded third. To reach this stage, the 28-year-old Muscovite will probably have to overcome the resistance of American Sebastian Korda. For Khachanov, this will be his third tournament in 2025. In Hong Kong, he lost in his first match to former world number four Kei Nishikori, and at the Australian Open he was the furthest from the Russian men's net. Karen beat Adrian Mannarino and Gabriel Diallo, but was kept out of the second week by Alex Michelsen.

From the other side of the Open 13 Provence grid, Hugo Umber and Hubert Hurkacz will move on to the semifinals.