Roman titles: how Russians perform at the Italian Open

Russian tennis players perform with varying success at the Masters in Rome, the last test before the start of Roland Garros. In the main women's draw, out of ten of our girls, only two were able to make it to the 1/8 finals. We are talking about the first and second rackets of the country — Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider. Mirra won a match in the Italian capital for the first time, and Diana did not give up a single set in two fights, despite the unexpected separation from coach Dinara Safina (after just a month of cooperation). In the men's draw, only Andrey Rublev was unpleasantly surprised, having lost to the 61st racket of the world Fabian Marojan in the first round. But Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov confidently entered the second week of the Masters.

The Italian Trial

At the start of Rome, Daniil allowed Cameron Norr to take only six games and led 4-0 in meetings with the representative of Great Britain (the former eighth racket of the world dropped to the end of the top hundred ranking). For reaching the fourth round, the Russian had to play with Alexei Popyrin, with whom he led 3-1 in personal meetings. However, the last one was won by an Australian at the Masters in Paris last year. It should be noted that the champion of last year's tournament in Montreal reached the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo (losing to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina), but was unable to continue his successful streak in Madrid. In Spain, Alexey lost in the first match to Jesper De Jong.

Apparently, this defeat was hard for Poprin. In the match with Medvedev, he looked like a pale shadow of himself. At the same time, at the very beginning, it was the Australian who was closer to the break. In the third game, Daniil had to play four break points at once. But in the next game, the Russian had only one chance to take the lead. At the crucial moment, Medvedev made a great backhand down the line (3-1). Next, he confirmed the break, but Daniel did not succeed in applying for a set. With the score 5:3, Popyrin played a magnificent game and, it would seem, fully returned to the game. But in the next game, Medvedev again managed to take the opponent's serve, which was helped by two unforced errors (6:4).

So Daniel took the first set and confidently opened the scoring in the second. The decisive moment of the game happened in the fourth and fifth games. At first, Medvedev made a break with confidence, and then led 40:15 on his serve. Popyrin looked as angry as possible and wanted to smash his racket on the surface of the Roman court, but changed his mind at the last moment. After that, Alexey brought the case to "exactly". In response, the Russian made a timely ace and waited for a mistake at the net from Popyrin. After that, the game could be finished. In the next game, Daniil made another break, and then closed the match on his first attempt. It lasted only 86 minutes.

Next, Daniil will have to play with eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti in Rome. The 2024 Wimbledon semifinalist, who made his top-10 debut last week, is having a successful clay season. In Monte Carlo, the Italian reached the final, where he lost in three sets to Carlos Alcaraz. Moreover, during the match, Lorenzo suffered a quadriceps injury, but it turned out to be minor. Muzetti only missed the Barcelona tournament, and already in Madrid he reached the semi-finals, where he was stopped by Jack Draper.

Rublev's problems

Karen Khachanov passed the stage of the 1/16 finals even faster. It took only 62 minutes for the Russian to beat Francesco Passaro. (6:3, 6:0). At the same time, he lost 0:3, 15:30, but then won 12 games in a row. He took the 27th steering wheel of his career, including his fifth at the Masters. Khachanov will now face third-seeded Carlos Alcaraz or Laszlo Gyeres.

But Andrey Rublev lost his first match in Rome. Fabian Marojan got the first set, and the Russian got the second set. At the beginning of the third game, the initiative was again on the Hungarian side. Andrey pulled himself together, played two matchballs on his own serve and one on someone else's, but it wasn't enough. (7:5: 4:6, 6:3). For our tennis player, this defeat was the fourth in the last six meetings.

Marat Safin, the former world number one, joined Rublev's team before the start of the clay season. The idea to invite him appeared even before the pandemic, but it only worked out now, and Andrey was very happy to start cooperation. At the same time, it was immediately indicated that everything could end before it could begin if the parties realized that there was no contact with each other.

Despite the fact that Safin did not have much time for changes, all Rublev's "primers" failed. In Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome, Andrey won only two matches in total. At the same time, the tennis player said that Safin would definitely remain on his team until the end of Roland Garros, where the tennis player would not be in the top 16 for the first time in many years. Let's hope that this star duo will have their first success there.

A quick break

Diana Schneider continues her successful performance in Rome, both in singles and doubles with Mirra Andreeva. Between matches, Diana talked about breaking up with her coach, former world number one Dinara Safina.

"It all happened very spontaneously,— Schneider told The Championship. — Just after the match in Madrid with Iga Sventek, Dinara informed me that she would not go to Rome with me. It was purely her decision. And then she said that she was not interested in considering further cooperation yet. That is, it was not my initiative, and certainly not on the part of my parents. As everyone writes, it's like they're taking all my money away from me. It's just disgusting to read. It really hurts when people think that about my parents. In fact, I have a great relationship with them.

Without Safina, Diana confidently won two singles matches, including hanging up two "steering wheels" by Caroline Dowlhide from the USA. Next, Schneider will play with Elise Mertens, the award-winning Belgian doubles tennis player. Mertens is also looking great in singles this season, so it won't be easy for the Russian.

Mira Andreeva defeated Emilian Arango from Colombia and 30th-seeded Linda Noskova from the Czech Republic. But not all Russians managed to successfully perform in the Italian capital. Anna Blinkova and Polina Kudermetova left the tournament in the first round. In the second — Anastasia Potapova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Anna Kalinskaya, Lyudmila Samsonova and Kamilla Rakhimova. In the third place is Veronika Kudermetova, who lost to the 2021 US Open champion Emma Radukan. The former first racket in doubles won the first set, but in the remaining two games, Radukan allowed the Russian to take only one game.

It should be noted that the third racket of Russia Ekaterina Alexandrova withdrew from the Italian Open due to shoulder problems.