First mixed doubles and junior final. What will you remember from the second day of the tournament in St. Petersburg?
Arina Poluyanova December 2, 2023, 23:45 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The “Leones” and “Esfinges” teams continue a difficult fight. Tomorrow the fate of the competition will be decided.
The “Northern Palmyra Trophies” tournament continues in St. Petersburg. From the second day of competition onwards, the intense individual matches will remain vivid in the memory. In total, five singles and one mixed doubles were played on Saturday, December 2.
The day began with the youth final. Yaroslav Demin, 18, and Egor Pleshivtsev, 16, as Russia’s first and second rackets, had a duel fight. The victory remained in the hands of Yaroslav, but everything was decided only in the decisive tie-break: 6:7, 6:3, 10:5. After the meeting we spoke with the boys. Read the interview with them about the “Championship” soon.
Yaroslav Demin
Photo: npt.formulatx.com
The next four senior matches proved to be serious battles. First of all, the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, who is finishing the best season of his career, defeated the Serbian Laslo Djere in three matches by 6: 1, 4: 6, 10: 7. Then Anastasia Potapova beat Veronika Kudermetova in a difficult two-set match 7:5, 7:6. Next, 19-year-old Diana Schneider, in her youthful enthusiasm, turned out to be stronger than 39-year-old Vera Zvonareva by 5: 7, 6: 4, 10: 6.
The marathon of singles matches ended with the fight between Karen Khachanov and Dusan Lajovic. As a result: the point went to the Lions team, represented by the Russians, 4:6, 7:5, 10:7. The stands are in shock. The arena clearly hasn’t heard as many screams from fans in a long time as it did after Karen’s victory.
The mixed couples took to the court for the final start. Anastasia Potapova and Alexander Shevchenko played their first match together as husband and wife. Yesterday they got married at the Saint Petersburg Wedding Palace and today they played against Roberto Bautista Agut and Yulia Putintseva.
Before the start of the tournament, the newlyweds shared their expectations for the joint mixed doubles match. Alejandro reacted to this quite cautiously.
“I have never played mixed doubles, but I don’t need to fight with my wife here for mixed doubles (laughs),” the tennis player shared with the “Championship.”
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At the beginning of the match, the atmosphere of the couples was different: Potapova and Shevchenko were smiling a lot, joking with each other and with their team captains. Putintseva and Bautista Agut seemed more focused. At the beginning of the first set, the Russians made a break and in the end took the game 6:4.
In the second set, Potapova and Shevchenko again broke first with the score 1:1, but in the next game Anastasia gave up her serve and the chances of both pairs were equal. After this, the duos exchanged their minigames once again and took the game to a tiebreaker. In the end, the second game was between Putintseva and Bautista Agut 7-6.
At the end of the second set, Julia and Roberto found their game, lined up and concentrated as much as possible. At the same time, Potapova began to complain about her elbow, and the Russian couple’s overall positive attitude began to fade. The Russians were not prepared for the rise of their rivals. Bautista-Agut and Putintseva took the decisive tiebreaker quite calmly with a score of 10:1.
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Before the mixed doubles match, Anastasia Potapova responded to a question about a possible duel with her husband at the Australian Open.
“Sasha doesn’t really want to play with me because she’s afraid: ‘I don’t want to go into the room later and hear how I made a mistake with that ball on the forehand, didn’t hit it, and then didn’t get an ace.’ I am in the process of talking to him about this issue. And one more thing: the qualification is combined and we are on the verge of a kata, I think, in theory, we can get there. But from 50% to 50%. If we hit, we will play, if not, it means we just don’t hit.”
One way or another, Anastasia and Alexander today gained great experience. And they never had a fight on the court, as the tennis player feared. We discussed some objectives, but they are minor things. The St. Petersburg couple has definitely laid the foundation for the future.
On Sunday, December 3, Saint Petersburg will host the last day of the tournament. During it, the final of the junior women’s tournament will be played, one for women in pairs and three for individuals. After two days of play, the Sphinxes team is leading. They have four points compared to the Lions’ three points.
