Burnt by the sun: Tatarstan Open 2010 ended in Kazan 16.08.2010

Anna Lapuschenkova (Russia) championed in the singles and the duo of Lesya Tsurenko (Ukraine) and Ekaterina Degalevich (Belarus) won the doubles title.

It needs to be said that the competition was full of surprises. Top-seeded Ksenia Pervak was eliminated in the first round of the Championship. She dropped the match to Vitalia Diatchenko with whom she trains together under the tuition of Viktor Pavlov. Third-seeded Evgeniya Rodina dropped out in the first round as well. Moreover she missed a chance to play in doubles events as she had applied only for singles. There was more to come – fourth-seeded Nina Bratchikova and sixth-seeded Ekaterina Ivanova crashed out of the tournament. But the renowned Russian quartet was replaced by Ukrainian Katerina Guskova and Russian Nadezhda Guskova who had started off from the very qualifiers.

Thus the women’s tournament was held in parallel with the men’s Kazan Kremlin Cup. Men’s tournament in snowy and stormy February at 30 below zero and women’s tournament in smoggy and hot August at 33 above zero. At the Kazan Kremlin Cup first-seeded Michal Przysiezny (Poland, ATP Ranking 170) and second-seeded Julian Reister (Germany, ATP Ranking 172) step by step advanced to the final. And as for this tournament the favourites tumbled out of the tournament. Fifth-seeded Alexandra Panova was next to drop out of the Tatarstan Open. Ksenia Pervak was out of luck in the doubles events as well. In pair with Alexandra Panova she was defeated by the international tandem of Albina Khabibulina (Uzbekistan) and Ksenia Palkina (Kirghizia) 7-5, 4-6, 2-10. Khabibulina is veteran of the Tatarstan tournament as well, after all she had to start off from the singles qualifiers.

On drawing near the end of the tournament the athletes got more and more burnt by the sun. The luckiest girls played both the singles and doubles events. For example, three tennis players: Lesya Tsurenko (Ukraine), Ksenia Palkina (Kirgizia) and Vitalia Diatchenko (Russia) could have contended for the Toughest Athlete title. On Day 5 of the tournament it was only Tsurenko who fought for medals both in singles and doubles. The Ukrainian sportspeople joke that gorilka and lard are the major national doping but speaking about mostly fragile tennis players from Ukraine we find it difficult to believe. Hence the real reason is different…

As for the Tatarstan female tennis players they repeated the fate of their male compatriots. Three host players awarded wild cards were eliminated from the first round of the tournament. Anna Smolina fell to Ukrainian Katerina Kozlova in singles 3-6, 2-6; Avgusta Tsybysheva was outplayed by Uzbek Albina Khabibulina 3-6, 1-6. And Lilya Sabirzyanova lost to Kazan tournament veteran Yulia Kalabina 1-6, 0-6. Unfortunately two-time Universiade 2009 champion Ksenia Lykina had withdrawn from the tournament because of her hand injury.

Sabirzyanova/Smolina were beaten by the international duo of Ekaterina Degalevich (Belarus) and Lesya Tsurenko (Ukraine) 1-6, 4-6. To be fair Degalevich/Tsurenko was the second-seeded pair of the tournament. And Tsybysheva/Guskova fell to the third-seeded tandem of Nina Bratchikova and Ekaterina Ivanova. Unfortunately neither positive experience of playing in doubles events nor the magic of her name could help her display a better performance in the month of the same name.

The Kazan men’s and women’s tournament featured yet another similarity – positive feedback on the Tennis Academy, work of the tournament managers, readiness of the city for the Universiade which is to start in three years.

Images by Roman Kruchinin