Yesterday’s tennis tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was unfortunate for Russians Mirra Andreeva and Daniil Medvedev. On Sunday, July 28, the 17-year-old from Krasnoyarsk withdrew from the women’s singles tournament, and the 28-year-old from Moscow completed his participation in the men’s doubles tournament. On Monday, Mirra and Daniil made their debut in mixed doubles, coinciding with Italian representatives Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori.
Previously, each of these duos played only one match together. At the same time, Mirra and Daniil joined forces only in an exhibition tournament – at the World Tennis League in December last year, losing in the play-off to Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas (matches there are single-game). In turn, Sarah and Andrea performed together at Wimbledon 2024, losing in the first round to Aldila Sutjiadi and Jackson Withrow.
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Moreover, unlike our athletes, who are separated from each other, Sarah and Andrea have truly colossal experience in the doubles game. Errani, 37, is a five-time champion and four-time finalist of Grand Slam doubles tournaments, Vavassori, 28, is ninth in the ATP doubles rankings and has reached the TBS final in doubles twice this season. However, already here in Paris, Andrea faced a huge disappointment, being eliminated from the doubles category in the first round. As number one seed, his well-played duo with Simone Bolelli sensationally lost in the opening match.
This happened the night before, and already on Monday Errani and Vavassori managed to play one more match each before appearing on the court in mixed doubles. Sarah warmed up in the women’s pair with Yasmine Paolini, sliding there with ease and confidence into the second round, while her mixed doubles partner was very busy in the men’s singles, playing a three-set match with Norwegian Casper Ruud.
In the French capital, Vavassori, who is ranked only 206th in singles, was initially supposed to compete only in doubles and mixed doubles. But after Australian Alex de Minaur refused, the Italian tennis player got his place in the men’s category of the tournament. In secondary singles, Andrea performed decently and even made it to the second round, but after 2 hours and 5 minutes he lost to Ruud 6:4, 4:6, 3:6.
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Before the match started, the Italians were considered clear favourites and they began to confirm their status from the middle of the first match. For obvious physiological reasons, the most vulnerable point in mixed doubles matches is the women’s serve. This is a rather banal truth that hardly requires further explanation. It is not surprising that the Italian tennis players achieved the first break point of the match on Mirra’s serve.
The real fight came in the eighth game, in which the Italians had four break opportunities. Our players fought back three times, but on the fourth attempt Errani and Vavassori got the key break of the match. After a long exchange of blows, Sarah scored a smash on a break point and then Andrea confidently held her serve, 6-3 in favour of the Italians.
At the beginning of the second set, Daniil played an extremely unsuccessful match. He made a number of unforced errors, including a double, a shot into the net when the score was equal and a break on break point, which also led to the loss of his serve. If at the beginning of the match the Russians were still playing well and before the first break the situation in the match was practically equal, after Medvedev lost his serve our athletes became noticeably depressed.
The Italians quickly began to build up their advantage, breaking Mirra’s serve 3:0 a few minutes later. In the fourth game, for the first time in the match, the Russians had a real chance to break, but frankly lacked intensity at the net. Vavassori took on the role of first, serving out a few rallies and helping her partner hold on for almost 15 minutes in the game.
This lost game deprived the Russians of their last hope of continuing the fight. Daniil and Mirra’s debut official match in mixed doubles did not go well. In the second set, Errani and Vavassori scored a convincing 6:2 victory, continuing their path in the mixed doubles category of the tournament.
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At the last Olympics, two Russian duos competed for gold in the mixed doubles final. Three years ago, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrei Rublev broke the resistance of Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev in a decisive match. In Paris, after the defeat of Mirra and Daniil, there were no Russians left in the mixed doubles draw, as this time we did not have a second duo.
Andreeva and Medvedev have one category left at Paris 2024. Daniil continues to perform in the men’s singles category, with which his main hopes for an Olympic medal were naturally linked even before the start of the tournament. He will play his second-round match against Austrian Sebastian Ofner on July 30. Mirra is still hoping for her first career victory in an Olympic match. On Tuesday, she will team up with Diana Schneider against the Australian duo Ajla Tomljanovic and Olivia Gadeki.
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The Olympic tennis tournament will end on August 4. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
