Post by Annie on Jun 28, 2005 15:43:36 GMT 3
Adios Chile, Bonjour France!
By Andrei Novikov
Article from the March issue of the Russian magazine Tennis +
I don't know about you, dearest tennis lovers, but I personally miss the real battles at the Davis Cup. I think you'll agree with me that previous re-classified match of the Russian team with Thailand came out to be rather boring, a so-called "one-sided game". But in our memories (if you consider home matches) remain exciting battles with the Swedes, the Germans, the Americans, the Slovakian team, the Argentineans... Match Russia-Chile in the 1/8 of the Davis Cup finals I would say fed the appetites of the tennis lovers, who in our days of global TV coverage of men's and women's tennis are very hard to impress.
Last time the Russians saw our players live was at the end of last year during the Kremlin Cup. As far as the Chileans are concerned, most of us hardly know anything about them. Maybe, someone will admire their Olympics deeds where Nicholas Massu and Fernando Gonzales became national heroes and managed to obtain 2 gold and one bronze medal between the two of them. One must note that these were actually the only medals won by Chile during the Olympics. So the game with the Russians in "Olympiyski" sports complex should have brought out some positive spirit in our guests. And from the very beginning they were saying that they were not going to perform as "the boys for beating up". In other case why bother flying all the way to Moscow taking a 24-hour flight? You can always find much warmer places on the planet.
This was how it was but when it turned out that Massu wasn't able to recover from his injury from the Australian Open in time, everyone started to predict that the chances of the team of Marcelo Rios against Safin and Co. were not extremely high.
Behind the scenes passionate discussions were arising regarding Massu's absence. Some were saying that if Massu was coming, the Chileans had a great chance of winning. I say, "Why should they?" Are these people trying to tell me that any of the Chileans actually won 2 Grand Slams or won the Davis Cup and were in the final twice? I don't think so. I remember Misha Youzhny fighting like a champion at the Olympics against Massu and Safin thrashing Gonzales two years ago.
On the other hand, however, Gonzales has really improved and has 5 championship titles at present. So we had to be on the lookout, and everyone including Shamil Tarpischev and Marat Safin warned about it.
The draw wasn't extremely lucky for Russia, Tarpischev however didn't comment on it. But the Chilean captain Sergio Elias was definitely happy with it. Obviously, if Marat started off first, get a good start for Misha, Youzhny would have felt much better continuing the great beginning. However, even though he lost, Misha never heard a word of grief from anyone. What grief can there be anyway? It is common knowledge that he is not fully recovered from his leg injury (it was very obvious he wasn't moving as fast as he can) and in addition to that he found out he would be playing instead of Davydenko just before the matches started. Nonetheless, if Misha didn't make these two silly mistakes being 4/2 up, the match could have had another ending. During the doubles match, where him and Marat played extremely great team tennis, Youzhny according to many people was the best of the four.
As it is known, the Chileans waited for their return to the world group for 20 years. In 1963 and 1967 they lost to the team of the USSR. In 1977 in Moscow there was supposed to be one more match but the Soviet communist party due to "political motives of non-approval of the Pinochet regime in Chile" refused to play the game, were considered as losers of the game and fined by the tennis association.
Tarpischev who was the team captain back then already, remembers how the party leaders called him in and asked him to write a guarantee that our team was going to win and hand it to the Government. And that is considering that for that generation of Soviet tennis players this was almost the only chance to participate in international tournaments. Now everything has changed and some players refuse to play for the national team trying to save their energy for large international tournaments. I would like to believe that our team spirit is different, however Davydenko's late arrival for this Davis Cup even though totally explained by him, makes me a bit suspicious. Isn't this why he wasn't the first pick of Tarpischev and was let out to play only when the result was more than obvious?
Marat Safin yet again was given the role of the "Russian national saviour" and he played it brilliantly. He equalised, together with Youzhny brought Russia forward and put a victory point in his match with Gonzales. During the press conference Marat himself was very self-critical. After his triumph in Melbourne he only played one game with Nicholas Kiefer in Dubai and lost it. So lack of practice was more than obvious. He actually managed to grace Adrian Garcia with a present in a form of a whole set and then played a tiebreak with him, too. After, Marat acknowledged that till the end he couldn't get used to the surface and was very critical about it. To be honest with you it was very strange to hear considering that when the team captain chooses the surface first thing he does is consults the team leader. Before they used to surface in favour of Kafelnikov, nowadays they do it in favour of Safin. And looking into the future for Russia-France match I suggest Marat seriously look into this matter.
If the Chileans players left Moscow without anything whatsoever, their journalists had a ball: they could directly communicate with Safin in their native language, which Marat is fluent in. On the whole, Marat turned out to be quite a polyglot*: he was very warm and friendly with the Russians speaking his native language, talked to some spectators in English, too. At that point I remembered how in Atlanta in his very first Davis Cup match against the USA during press conferences Marat had Kafelnikov as his interpreter.
A lot has changed since then. Not only does Marat play great tennis now, he also learned how to talk about the game and after he ignored the Russian press so much after the AO this time he was more than willing to comment on all his games. "My serve definitely saved me", he frankly noted after his match with Gonzales, "if not for my serve, I could have easily lost in 3 sets because today I played one of the worst matches of my career. What can you do...I am getting old...old yeah". Does he seriously believe we are gonna buy that?
He was also asked about spectators and gave a great Marat Safin style answer "It's really funny to hear people giving their advice: throw the ball higher, bend your knees, pull yourself together, and go forward to the net. When they're nervous everyone feels like their 1st in the ATP rating and they all know how to beat Gonzales. Well, that doesn't surprise me since our country was always knows as the advice land".
Does it ever occur to you that one of the best tennis players of our times doesn't only have an appearance of a movie hero but also has great actor talent, he easily plays a role he himself decides to play and plays it till he gets fed up. And his partners in movies are his opponents, umpires, spectators, journalists, and his own racket. I wonder where all these soap opera and movie producers are looking at...
In the principal and final match against Gonzales Safin became a hero of his own show that for three and a half hours kept a ten thousand stadium in a state of a nervous breakdown. He managed to make tennis spectators support him in a very football manner. It even came to a point when his young fans sitting at the very top were shouting at his opponent, who actually didn't do anything wrong and is on the whole a very sweet guy. To continue the topic, I must say that the Chilean journalists said that what was happening in Olympiyski is nothing compared to what happens during the Davis Cup in major cities in Chile, including Santiago. There opponents can easily have fruit and vegetables being thrown at them. Hopefully, Russians won't start throwing gherkins at our opponents.
Safin and Gonzales in their turn bombed each other with aces (20 against 19). Marat during this match lost his shot from the right, Gonzales on the other hand performed excellent technique in this tool. Safin gained 68 unforced errors, Gonzales - 60. 24-year old Chilean had 5 tie breaks in 2 matches and they at the end wore him out.
"To be losing 0/2 to Marat is way too much. He gave me a chance in the 3 set and I used it. But in the 5th one I gave him that chance and gave him an opportunity to win. This match was an excellent experience for us and showed that the Chilean school has a bright future", Gonzales said after at the press conference, he also set himself a goal to get into the top 10 this year. However, the Australian Open champion and the 4th in the ATP rating was the one to say the last word. So the Russian team for 10 years in a row doesn't know what it is to be defeated in Moscow, since that loss in 1995 to the Americans. When the teams were getting ready for the official reception it came to knowledge that our next opponents will be France and the match will take place between July 15 and 17, 2005 in Moscow. So Guy Forge together with the men's team will have to book themselves some tickets to Moscow. We eagerly await your arrival, monsieur.
Translated by Annie
*polyglot = a person who knows or uses several different languages.
By Andrei Novikov
Article from the March issue of the Russian magazine Tennis +
I don't know about you, dearest tennis lovers, but I personally miss the real battles at the Davis Cup. I think you'll agree with me that previous re-classified match of the Russian team with Thailand came out to be rather boring, a so-called "one-sided game". But in our memories (if you consider home matches) remain exciting battles with the Swedes, the Germans, the Americans, the Slovakian team, the Argentineans... Match Russia-Chile in the 1/8 of the Davis Cup finals I would say fed the appetites of the tennis lovers, who in our days of global TV coverage of men's and women's tennis are very hard to impress.
Last time the Russians saw our players live was at the end of last year during the Kremlin Cup. As far as the Chileans are concerned, most of us hardly know anything about them. Maybe, someone will admire their Olympics deeds where Nicholas Massu and Fernando Gonzales became national heroes and managed to obtain 2 gold and one bronze medal between the two of them. One must note that these were actually the only medals won by Chile during the Olympics. So the game with the Russians in "Olympiyski" sports complex should have brought out some positive spirit in our guests. And from the very beginning they were saying that they were not going to perform as "the boys for beating up". In other case why bother flying all the way to Moscow taking a 24-hour flight? You can always find much warmer places on the planet.
This was how it was but when it turned out that Massu wasn't able to recover from his injury from the Australian Open in time, everyone started to predict that the chances of the team of Marcelo Rios against Safin and Co. were not extremely high.
Behind the scenes passionate discussions were arising regarding Massu's absence. Some were saying that if Massu was coming, the Chileans had a great chance of winning. I say, "Why should they?" Are these people trying to tell me that any of the Chileans actually won 2 Grand Slams or won the Davis Cup and were in the final twice? I don't think so. I remember Misha Youzhny fighting like a champion at the Olympics against Massu and Safin thrashing Gonzales two years ago.
On the other hand, however, Gonzales has really improved and has 5 championship titles at present. So we had to be on the lookout, and everyone including Shamil Tarpischev and Marat Safin warned about it.
The draw wasn't extremely lucky for Russia, Tarpischev however didn't comment on it. But the Chilean captain Sergio Elias was definitely happy with it. Obviously, if Marat started off first, get a good start for Misha, Youzhny would have felt much better continuing the great beginning. However, even though he lost, Misha never heard a word of grief from anyone. What grief can there be anyway? It is common knowledge that he is not fully recovered from his leg injury (it was very obvious he wasn't moving as fast as he can) and in addition to that he found out he would be playing instead of Davydenko just before the matches started. Nonetheless, if Misha didn't make these two silly mistakes being 4/2 up, the match could have had another ending. During the doubles match, where him and Marat played extremely great team tennis, Youzhny according to many people was the best of the four.
As it is known, the Chileans waited for their return to the world group for 20 years. In 1963 and 1967 they lost to the team of the USSR. In 1977 in Moscow there was supposed to be one more match but the Soviet communist party due to "political motives of non-approval of the Pinochet regime in Chile" refused to play the game, were considered as losers of the game and fined by the tennis association.
Tarpischev who was the team captain back then already, remembers how the party leaders called him in and asked him to write a guarantee that our team was going to win and hand it to the Government. And that is considering that for that generation of Soviet tennis players this was almost the only chance to participate in international tournaments. Now everything has changed and some players refuse to play for the national team trying to save their energy for large international tournaments. I would like to believe that our team spirit is different, however Davydenko's late arrival for this Davis Cup even though totally explained by him, makes me a bit suspicious. Isn't this why he wasn't the first pick of Tarpischev and was let out to play only when the result was more than obvious?
Marat Safin yet again was given the role of the "Russian national saviour" and he played it brilliantly. He equalised, together with Youzhny brought Russia forward and put a victory point in his match with Gonzales. During the press conference Marat himself was very self-critical. After his triumph in Melbourne he only played one game with Nicholas Kiefer in Dubai and lost it. So lack of practice was more than obvious. He actually managed to grace Adrian Garcia with a present in a form of a whole set and then played a tiebreak with him, too. After, Marat acknowledged that till the end he couldn't get used to the surface and was very critical about it. To be honest with you it was very strange to hear considering that when the team captain chooses the surface first thing he does is consults the team leader. Before they used to surface in favour of Kafelnikov, nowadays they do it in favour of Safin. And looking into the future for Russia-France match I suggest Marat seriously look into this matter.
If the Chileans players left Moscow without anything whatsoever, their journalists had a ball: they could directly communicate with Safin in their native language, which Marat is fluent in. On the whole, Marat turned out to be quite a polyglot*: he was very warm and friendly with the Russians speaking his native language, talked to some spectators in English, too. At that point I remembered how in Atlanta in his very first Davis Cup match against the USA during press conferences Marat had Kafelnikov as his interpreter.
A lot has changed since then. Not only does Marat play great tennis now, he also learned how to talk about the game and after he ignored the Russian press so much after the AO this time he was more than willing to comment on all his games. "My serve definitely saved me", he frankly noted after his match with Gonzales, "if not for my serve, I could have easily lost in 3 sets because today I played one of the worst matches of my career. What can you do...I am getting old...old yeah". Does he seriously believe we are gonna buy that?
He was also asked about spectators and gave a great Marat Safin style answer "It's really funny to hear people giving their advice: throw the ball higher, bend your knees, pull yourself together, and go forward to the net. When they're nervous everyone feels like their 1st in the ATP rating and they all know how to beat Gonzales. Well, that doesn't surprise me since our country was always knows as the advice land".
Does it ever occur to you that one of the best tennis players of our times doesn't only have an appearance of a movie hero but also has great actor talent, he easily plays a role he himself decides to play and plays it till he gets fed up. And his partners in movies are his opponents, umpires, spectators, journalists, and his own racket. I wonder where all these soap opera and movie producers are looking at...
In the principal and final match against Gonzales Safin became a hero of his own show that for three and a half hours kept a ten thousand stadium in a state of a nervous breakdown. He managed to make tennis spectators support him in a very football manner. It even came to a point when his young fans sitting at the very top were shouting at his opponent, who actually didn't do anything wrong and is on the whole a very sweet guy. To continue the topic, I must say that the Chilean journalists said that what was happening in Olympiyski is nothing compared to what happens during the Davis Cup in major cities in Chile, including Santiago. There opponents can easily have fruit and vegetables being thrown at them. Hopefully, Russians won't start throwing gherkins at our opponents.
Safin and Gonzales in their turn bombed each other with aces (20 against 19). Marat during this match lost his shot from the right, Gonzales on the other hand performed excellent technique in this tool. Safin gained 68 unforced errors, Gonzales - 60. 24-year old Chilean had 5 tie breaks in 2 matches and they at the end wore him out.
"To be losing 0/2 to Marat is way too much. He gave me a chance in the 3 set and I used it. But in the 5th one I gave him that chance and gave him an opportunity to win. This match was an excellent experience for us and showed that the Chilean school has a bright future", Gonzales said after at the press conference, he also set himself a goal to get into the top 10 this year. However, the Australian Open champion and the 4th in the ATP rating was the one to say the last word. So the Russian team for 10 years in a row doesn't know what it is to be defeated in Moscow, since that loss in 1995 to the Americans. When the teams were getting ready for the official reception it came to knowledge that our next opponents will be France and the match will take place between July 15 and 17, 2005 in Moscow. So Guy Forge together with the men's team will have to book themselves some tickets to Moscow. We eagerly await your arrival, monsieur.
Translated by Annie
*polyglot = a person who knows or uses several different languages.
