The “Russian team” lost to the WTL in its debut. But Medvedev, Rublev and Mirra have not lost anything yet.

The “Russian team” lost to the WTL in its debut. But Medvedev, Rublev and Mirra have not lost anything yet.

Alexander Nasonov December 21, 2023, 21:25 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

Andrey won with Daniil both the singles and doubles matches, but even this was not enough to achieve success.

On Thursday, December 21, the first competitive day of the second season of the World Tennis League (WTL) took place in Abu Dhabi (UAE). This is a team tournament with exhibition status. Read more about the format and composition of participants in a separate material.

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The fact that the format had been changed (two doubles matches were added to the mixed doubles and two singles, but the matches were reduced to one set) became known immediately before the start of the competition. An important point: the winner of a team match is not determined by who won how many matches, but by the number of games won.

The first game of the day pitted the Hawks (Hubert Hurkacz, Casper Ruud, Iga Swiatek and Caroline García) against the Falcons (Taylor Fritz, Sumit Nagal, Elena Rybakina and Sorana Cirstea). And the right to open the contest fell to men. Ruud/Hurkach played a doubles match with Fritz/Nagal. After 1-1, the rivals exchanged breaks, and at 4-3, the Norwegian and the Pole once again took each other’s serve. But at 5:3 they could not serve for the match, losing a match point at 40:40 (remember that in each of the matches with “even” the decisive point is played). The tiebreaker arrived, in which the Americans and Indians were slightly stronger: 7-6 (8-6) in 40 minutes.

The second game was mixed: García and Hurkacz against Kirsti and Fritz. Here the Americans and Romanians did not give their rivals many chances and, after making two breaks, they achieved the victory 6:2 in 22 minutes.

In the women’s doubles match Swiatek/García and Rybakina/Kirstya competed. At those moments, the camera captured the two-time TBS champion in this event, Vera Zvonareva, in the stands, who at 39 years old spent the 2023 season brilliantly, ending it with a victory in the Final WTA Championship.

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As for the match itself, Rybakina and Kirstya played with more confidence than Swiatek and Garcia. At 1:1 the rivals exchanged breaks, and then the Muscovite and the Romanian calmly recovered their serves and had break points on the return. In the ninth game they achieved a break, after which they served for the match 6:4 in 37 minutes.

Then it was the turn of the singles. The male opposition consisted of Ruud and Fritz. There was no fight in this match, perhaps because the Norwegian was playing his second set of the day, and the American was already playing his third. The game ended with a score of 6:1 in favor of Kasper: Taylor only took one game, and it was with his own serve.

The organizers left the most interesting game of this match for last. Swiatek – Rybakina is always an intrigue. In official personal meetings, the score is 3-1 in favor of the representative of Kazakhstan; Exhibition games, of course, are not included in these statistics. The Pole faced break points more often, but so far neither she nor her opponent managed to tip the balance in her favor. And yet, in the tenth game, Iga successfully executed the move, although the game started with 30:0 in favor of Elena and she took the set 6:4.

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Although, that was not all. The total score of the games between Hawks and Falcons was the same: 24:24. So Swiatek and Rybakina suddenly had to play a championship tiebreaker at 10 points (but with a decisive tie at 9:9) to determine which team would get the three bonus points. The Muscovite led with 8:5, then the Pole equalized the score (8:8), but the end of this match, which consisted of two logically unrelated parts, remained in the hands of Elena with a score of 4:6. [10:8] in 57 minutes.

Falcons – Falcons – 24:27

Hurkac/Ruud – Fritz/Nagall – 6:7 (6:8). Garcia/Hurkac – Kirstya/Fritz – 2:6. Swiatek/García – Rybakina/Kirstya – 4:6. Ruud – Fritz – 6:1. Swiatek — Rybakina — 6:4, [8:10].

The second match was of much greater interest to Russian fans, because it pitted the Eagles (Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Mirra Andreeva and Moscow’s American Sofia Kenin) against the Knights (Stefanos Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov, Arina Sabalenka and Paula Badosa ). ). The women were the first to take the court: Andreeva and Kenin played with Sabalenka and Badosa, lifelong friends. The Belarusian and Spanish players never allowed their opponents to reach break points, and they themselves, after taking another’s serve in the eighth game (5-3), served for the match: 6-3 in 31 minutes.

Then a mixed match took place, in which Badosa and Tsitsipas, who were in pairs, played with Kenin and Medvedev. For some time in the match there were not only no breaks, but there were also no break points. But at 3:3 Badosa and Tsitsipas paused, and Medvedev and Kenin, serving against their favor at 3:5, saved the match point at 40:40. But with 5:4, the Spanish and the Greek won 6:4 in 29 minutes.

In the third game, Medvedev and Rublev faced Dimitrov and Tsitsipas. Here too the opponents stayed away from break points for a long time. In the eleventh game, the Russians got a triple break point, but failed to achieve it. Then Daniil and Andrey won their game and achieved a tiebreaker. And here our guys did not miss their goal: 7:6 (7:3) in 43 minutes.

In the men’s singles match, Rublev fought with Dimitrov. The Russian took away the other’s serve in the fourth game. Afterwards, Andrei took his games with confidence, at 5:2, at 40:40 he missed a match point on the reception, and at 5:3 he served for the match: 6:3 in 27 minutes.

In the last match of the day, Andreeva faced Sabalenka. It was there where the fate of the confrontation between the Knights and the Eagles was decided. The score of the official personal matches is 1-0 in favor of the Belarusian. In the round of 16 of the Madrid 2023 clay tournament he confidently beat the Russian 6: 3, 6: 1. Arina quickly took the lead with a break (2-0), but Mirra immediately came back 2-2. The sixth game was key: Andreeva, serving against 2:3, started with 0:40, tied, but lost the decisive point: 4:2 in favor of Sabalenka. Arina took the seventh game to zero and in the eighth she took advantage of the first match point in the reception: 6:2 in 28 minutes.

Knights – Eagles – 27:22

Badosa/Sabolenko – Andreeva/Kenin – 6:3 Badosa/Tsitsipas – Kenin/Medvedev – 6:4 Dimitrov/Tsitsipas – Medvedev/Rublev – 6:7 (3:7) Dimitrov – Rublev – 3:6 Sabalenko – Andreeva – 6 :2.

Thus, after the first day of competition, the leaders were the Knights and the Falcons, who won their matches, and the Falcons and our Eagles were left behind.

The second day of WTL-2023 competition will take place on Friday, December 22. The Falcons will take on the Knights first and then the Eagles will take on the Hawks. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.