Rackets at the start: the main faces of the elite tennis tournament in St. Petersburg

Russian tennis stars Daniil Medvedev, Karen Khachanov, Veronika Kudermetova and Diana Schneider, who have performed well this season, will play at the fourth international team tennis tournament "Trophies of Northern Palmyra", which will be held in St. Petersburg from November 29 to 30. Anastasia Potapova, representatives of Kazakhstan Alexander Bublik and Yulia Putintseva, Tallon Grixpor from the Netherlands will also take to the courts of the KSK Arena these days, and Serbian Janko Tipsarevic and Frenchman of Indian origin Mansour Bahrami will be the team captains.

With the champion of the Final

20 days after winning the WTA Doubles Final tournament, Veronika Kudermetova will delight tennis fans in Russia with her game. Last season was one of the best in her career for her: Veronica managed to conquer a new peak — to win her debut title at Grand Slam tournaments, winning Wimbledon together with Belgian Elise Mertens. The Russian-Belgian pair also reached the finals of the WTA 1000 tournaments in Madrid and Rome, the semifinals of Cincinnati and the US Open. After winning the WTA Finals (second in his career) Veronica rose to the sixth place in the doubles ranking.

She also managed to show good results in singles. Kudermetova reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, and the third at Roland Garros. At the thousandth anniversary in Cincinnati in the summer of 2025, the Russian stopped a step away from the finals, losing to Jasmine Paolini in a dramatic struggle. Veronica finished the year in the top 30 and will now play in the North Palmyra Trophies for the second time (previously in 2023).

Diana Schneider will participate in the "Trophies of Northern Palmyra" for the third year in a row. The native of the Samara region finished the season in 21st place in singles and 11th in the world in doubles. The Russian made a breakthrough in results last season, winning four WTA titles in singles and duet with Mirra Andreeva, becoming the Olympic silver medalist. In 2025, she was close to the top 10 in singles (she was 11th in May), and also won the title at the WTA 500 in Monterrey. And paired with Mirra Andreeva, she excelled at the prestigious thousandth anniversary in Miami and Brisbane, winning the right to participate in the WTA Finals. In Saudi Arabia, our pair performed poorly, losing all three matches in the group. However, there is an objective reason for this: Mirra experienced health problems throughout the tournament.

We won't see Andreeva Jr. in St. Petersburg either, but Anastasia Potapova and representative of Kazakhstan Yulia Putintseva will also play in the Northern Capital. In 2025, Anastasia competed in singles in Cluj-Napoca, and also beat top-10 Olympic champion Zheng Qingwen in Madrid (where she eventually reached the 1/8 finals). Potapova finished the season in 51st place.

Putintseva, like Potapova, also has three wins at WTA singles tournaments to her credit. In addition, in 2017, she reached the finals in the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy. The second racket of Kazakhstan ranks 73rd in the world ranking. Both tennis players have played at all previous North Palmyra Trophy tournaments and are well known to local fans.

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Karen's hat trick?

The men's tournament will also feature elite players. For the first time in five years, Daniil Medvedev, the leader of Russian tennis, will play in Russia. He also has a title at the St. Petersburg Open — in 2019, he defeated Croatian Borna Choric in the final. (6:3, 6:1). In total, Daniil played at the tournament in St. Petersburg five times. The last time Medvedev spoke in St. Petersburg was in October 2020.

The 2025 season turned out to be a difficult one for Medvedev. The Russian finished it in 13th place in the ATP rankings, won only one title - at the ATP 250 tournament in Alma Ata (Kazakhstan) — and missed the Final for the first time since 2018. He even changed his coach over the course of the year. But now it's time to perform at home.

Alexander Bublik, a native of Gatchina, will become the highest-ranked tennis player of the tournament. The representative of Kazakhstan (since 2016) had the best season of his career, finishing it on the 11th line of the ATP rankings. In 2025, he was able to take titles on all surfaces. Bublik won a hardball tournament in Hangzhou, won on grass in Halle, and on clay in Gstaad and Kitzbuhel.

The organizers also confirmed the participation of the 18th racket of the world Karen Khachanov. During the current season, thanks to a series of successful results in August, Karen returned to the top ten in the world. In the summer, the 29-year-old Muscovite reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and the final of the Masters in Toronto. In Canada, in the semifinals, he defeated Alexander Zverev, the third racket of the world, and only lost to Ben Shelton in the tiebreak of the decisive set in the title match.

However, Karen did not manage to stay in the top ten. The end of the season didn't work out for him at all. Perhaps it was the injury sustained in the match with Zverev in Cincinnati and the heavy defeat by Kamil Maikhshak at the US Open. In November, it became known that Karen was quitting her job with Spanish coach Jose Clavet. Their collaboration lasted almost six years and became one of the longest in the tour.

It should be noted that the tennis player participated in the "Trophies of Northern Palmyra" twice, both times successfully. In 2023 and 2024, he played for the Lions and consistently helped his team win the North Palmyra Trophies titles. This time we will see him as part of the "Sphinxes".

Doubles ghost: Kudermetova and Mertens reached the semifinals of the Final tournament

But Andreeva and Schneider can end the year with six defeats in a row.

The captain of the "Sphinxes" (besides Khachanov, Medvedeva, Kudermetova and Putintseva will play) will be the finalist of the doubles "Roland Garros" (1989) Mansour Bahrami, who represented Iran and France in his career. Mansour gained much more fame at a more mature age as a bright tennis showman. At the age of 69, Bahrami is in fantastic shape, which he regularly proves with spectacular tricks on the court and is rightfully considered number one in the so-called acrobatic tennis, perfectly performing, in particular, hand serves, tweeners, punches from behind, as well as the handle of a racket.

Lviv (Bublik, Grixpor, Schneider, Potapova) will be led by former world number eight, Davis Cup champion Janko Tipsarevic of the Serbian national team. For a great lover of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work, this is not the first such experience. Tipsarevich made his debut as a captain in the Trophies of Northern Palmyra in 2022, and a year later led the Lions to victory with Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The tournament consists of eight singles matches and two doubles matches. The winner is determined by the largest number of games won by each team out of a total of ten matches. In the case of an equal number of games won by each team, the winner of the tournament is determined by the number of matches in which each team won. In the case of an equal number of matches and games won by the participants of the tenth match, a decisive tie-break of up to seven points is played, the winner of which wins the tournament.

All singles and doubles matches consist of three sets, each set lasting 20 minutes. The time is controlled by the referee on the tower and displayed on the scoreboard. In all games in singles and doubles, the No-Ad system is used (when the score is 40:40, the decisive point is played, the receiver chooses the field of serve for reception). In the first and second sets, wins may not be played, an equal score is allowed.