Where are the Russians?!
Given the Grand Slam success that the Russian women enjoyed only a few years ago, and the men in the past decade or so, there’s a slight sense that Russian tennis may be slipping. The Kremlin Cup, a major men’s and women’s tournament on the calendar and
in Russian tennis as well in being played this week. However, none of the top Russian women are competing. As of today, there are only two Russian women in the top ten, i.e. Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva, five in the top twenty, i.e. Zvonareva, Dementieva, Nadia Petrova, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova, and seventeen in the top one hundred ranked women. On the men’s side, there is one Russian man in the top ten, a big event two in the top twenty and only three in the top 100 ranked men, i.e. Mikhail Youzhny, Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev.
The Russian women still dominate the country tallies at the Grand Slams, but they seem to be slipping down the rankings and no Russian woman has won a Grand Slam singles title since Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2009 French Open. Meanwhile, the Russian men’s numbers have slipped a bit in the country tallies since 2008. On the men’s side, the Grand Slam success of Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin has also not translated into a wave of Russian men capturing Grand Slams. In fact, Davydenko has been the highest ranked Russian man the past several years and his ranking has dropped a lot since he was out for a few months with a wrist injury earlier this year and will drop further since he can’t defend his ATP World Tour Final win (he did not qualify). On the women’s side, the Russians still have the “numbers”, but can they dominate the later rounds of Grand Slams again and will another talented Russian man rise up through the rankings? The Russian sports and tennis “machines” have a history of success so time will tell if this is simply a “lull” or a significant shift.
The Russian women still dominate the country tallies at the Grand Slams, but they seem to be slipping down the rankings and no Russian woman has won a Grand Slam singles title since Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2009 French Open. Meanwhile, the Russian men’s numbers have slipped a bit in the country tallies since 2008. On the men’s side, the Grand Slam success of Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin has also not translated into a wave of Russian men capturing Grand Slams. In fact, Davydenko has been the highest ranked Russian man the past several years and his ranking has dropped a lot since he was out for a few months with a wrist injury earlier this year and will drop further since he can’t defend his ATP World Tour Final win (he did not qualify). On the women’s side, the Russians still have the “numbers”, but can they dominate the later rounds of Grand Slams again and will another talented Russian man rise up through the rankings? The Russian sports and tennis “machines” have a history of success so time will tell if this is simply a “lull” or a significant shift.
|
