Roman Wrestling: Tennis players join the battle for the Italian Open

A crucial test of top tennis players begins in Rome before the main clay tournament of the season, Roland Garros. The Russians have won the super tournaments in the Italian capital four times. Maria Sharapova did it three times, and in 2022 Rome submitted to Daniil Medvedev. This year, Daniil is only the 10th seed, and his recent results hardly allow us to hope for a repeat of that triumph. Our girls have a little more chance of a successful performance. The main hopes are for Mirra Andreeva and Ekaterina Alexandrova, who are still in the top 8 in the ATP championship race. Anna Kalinskaya, who won the super tournament in Madrid in doubles, can also surprise.

Anna's success

The doubles final in the Spanish capital turned out to be beneficial for Russian fans — regardless of the outcome, the doubles trophy would have gone to our country. However, it was difficult to expect an equal fight — the girls reached the decisive match in different ways. Sorana Kirstya Couple/Anna Kalinskaya confidently beat Xi Suwei from Taiwan and Elena Ostapenko from Latvia in the semifinals. — 7:6 (7:2), 6:4. But Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens did not perform so convincingly against the duo of Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) and Ashlyn Krueger (USA) — 4:6, 6:4, 10:8.

Nevertheless, in the final, all past meetings were forgotten. The first game lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes and ended in a tight tie-break (12:10 in favor of Mertens/Kudermetova). During the tense tie-break, an unpleasant incident occurred — while chasing the ball at one of the moments, Kalinskaya fell hard to the ground. The Russian woman not only got dirty, but apparently hurt her knee and got an abrasion. For a short time, there were fears that she would not be able to continue the meeting, but Anna had two Band-Aids applied, after which she went onto the court.

The second set went completely differently for Kalinskaya and Kirsty. Although they gave the start (Kudermetova and Mertens won their serve and then made a break), then the Russian-Romanian duo completely seized the initiative. Anna and Sorana scored six consecutive games, and four of them were at zero. So after 40 minutes, the game went into a supertaybreak.

Everything went a little calmer in him. The duets were accurate on serves, and in the first 11 draws they missed only once — Kalinskaya and Kirstya scored. But a little later, the exchange of errors began, which only intensified as we approached the required 10 points. At the same time, the most stubborn struggle began — both duets failed to serve for the match in turn.

Everything changed when both couples got to ten. The Russian-Romanian pair came away from defeat at 9:10, and then took three draws in a row. Kudermetova and Mertens could not resist the powerful comeback of Anna and Sorana. For 26-year-old Kalinskaya, this doubles title was the first of the season and the third of her career.

Sports weekend with Izvestia

The RPL matches, the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup, the finish of the tennis tournament in Madrid, the end of the first round of the Stanley Cup and other events

Formation of grids

In Rome, Anna was among the 28th seeds and will miss the first round. Last year she was eliminated in the 1/16 finals and this year she can play without much pressure from the point of view of point protection. Mirra Andreeva, Diana Schneider, Anastasia Potapova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Veronika Kudermetova, Polina Kudermetova and Lyudmila Samsonova will also play among the Russians in the main draw.

Potapova (who will play Ukrainian Dayana Yastremskaya), Pavlyuchenkova (Katie Boulter from Great Britain) and Veronika Kudermetova (Lucrezia Stefanini from Italy) have already recognized their rivals in the first round.

The winner of the tournament in 2024 was Polish Iga Swentek, who defeated Belarusian Arina Sobolenko in the final. (6:2, 6:3). This year, Arina and Iga are again the first and second seeded.

Daniil Medvedev (seeded at number 10, got into the same quarter with Alexander Zverev), Andrey Rublev (16th, will play Fabian Marojan or Joao Fonseca in the second round), Karen Khachanov (23rd, will compete with Lorenzo Sonego or qualifier) and Roman will play in the men's draw from the Russians. Safiullin (will face Alexander Bublik in the first round). Italian world number one Yannick Sinner will return to the court after a three-month suspension for doping.

The Masters tournament in Rome will be held from 7 to 18 May. The current champion is German tennis player Alexander Zverev, who beat Chilean Nicolas Harry in last year's final.