Two tennis stories that started in Russia will continue on Friday in New York as Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev take turns trying to reach the men’s final of the United States Open.
Both are trilingual and 6-foot-6, which was once considered too tall for a great tennis player. Both clearly have the power and potential to win more Grand Slam titles, and this title, for a change, is available to the younger generation, without any of the Big Three – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal – blocking the way. .
Zverev, 23, the German son of Russian professional tennis players, will face Spain’s Pablo Carreño Busta, 29, in the first semi-final. Medvedev, 24, raised in Moscow but now married and living in Munich, will then face Dominic Thiem, 27, the Austrian who is the highest seeded remaining, at No. 2. Neither of the four has won a Grand Slam tournament.
“The most important thing is not to get ahead of yourself,” said Gilles Cervara, Medvedev’s coach. “We all know what it’s like not to have those three guys in the tournament, but we can’t stick with that. It’s about going little by little, step by step. “
It took a lot of steps to get Medvedev and Zverev to the brink, and in both cases, leaving Russia was an important thing.
Zverev’s parents, Alexander Sr. and Irina, met in Sochi, the Russian tourist city and center of tennis on the Black Sea. It was also the home of Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the first Russian man to be ranked No. 1 in the world in tennis, and it was where Maria Sharapova, a future No. 1 of the women, spent her very early childhood before leaving with her father, Yuri, for the Florida tennis academies, with less than $ 1,000 in cash in Yuri’s pockets.
Alexander Sr., an attacking player, has come of age in the Soviet Union, where tennis has long been suspiciously considered a middle-class pursuit and where prominent players have often found it difficult to leave for international events. Stars emerged, such as Olga Morozova and Alex Metreveli, who reached the Wimbledon finals in the 1970s, and later Natasha Zvereva and Andrei Chesnokov, who both entered the top 10 in singles and had a continuous and risky fight. with the Soviet authorities about how much of their prize money they could keep.
Alexander Sr. reached number 175 and Irina, seven years younger, reached number 380. Their eldest son, Mischa, was born in Russia, but the family moved to Germany in 1991 and Alexander, nicknamed Sascha, was born in Hamburg in 1997.
The brothers went on to become pros with radically different playing styles. Mischa, ranked up to 25 in 2017, is one of the few pure serve-and-volley on tour, while Alexander, who was ranked third, is a more conventional forward with a massive serve and a powerful two-handed backhand and fluid.
“I am not at all surprised that the Zverevs have raised two top players,” Kafelnikov said in a telephone interview from Moscow. “They knew what they had faced before in Russia and they knew exactly what they wanted to give to their children. They wanted the boys to become professional tennis players and be successful. Mischa sounds a bit like her father’s style. Sascha is a bit different, with great baseline shots. “
Kafelnikov, 46, was the most successful Russian player since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. He initially rushed to find training and stability bases with his coach, Anatoly Lepeshin, former head of the Soviet junior program who a worked with Alexander Sr..But while other talented Russian players weren’t able to find the funds to continue their career, Kafelnikov, a smooth and flat bottom player, persevered to become the first Russian man to win a championship title. Grand Slam in single, at the 1996 French Open, and then won the Australian Open in 1999.
He later joined forces with Marat Safin, Russia’s other great post-breakout men’s tennis star, to win the Davis Cup for the first time for Russia in 2002.
Safin, a swashbuckling figure who broke his rackets almost every time he broke the serve, also reached number 1 and won two Grand Slam titles in singles: the US Open 2000, where he shocked Pete Sampras in two sets. in the final, and the 2005 Australian Open.
Like Sharapova and another future star of women’s football, Anna Kournikova, Safin left Russia to develop her game. It did so in part due to the lack of academy-style facilities at home and the brutal winter weather. Safin’s parents were also coaches and former players, but he went to Valencia, Spain to train at the age of 14 and was joined by his younger sister, Dinara, who also became number 1.
“We couldn’t rely on anyone but ourselves,” Kafelnikov said. “My parents weren’t that rich and I knew that if I couldn’t play tennis I would have nothing to do. And that’s what drove so many of us. The life we had in the Soviet Union wasn’t great and when it broke up everyone was left alone. The choice was simple. Will you do the hard work or not? “
Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open women’s singles champion, also went to Spain, before becoming a key part of the great wave of Russian women who joined the elite in the 2000s – including Sharapova, Safina, Anastasia Myskina, Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva.
Russian women’s tennis has not yet reached such high levels in recent years, although Zvonareva, 36, has reached the women’s doubles final of this US Open with a German partner, Laura Siegemund.
But men, after a period of rest, are now recovering with Medvedev; Karen Khachanov, 24, and Andrey Rublev, 22.
Medvedev, a shape-shifting tactician ranked 5th, is the leader. He pushed Nadal to five sets before losing last year’s classic US Open final, and on Wednesday he defeated Rublev, his good friend and childhood rival, in the quarter-finals.
“I play a little more on the break,” Medvedev said. “Maybe seeing what my opponent does, then deciding how I will play. Andrey is different. Try to dictate his play with the forehand, look for the shots. He doesn’t really care what the opponent does. He only cares about himself, so it’s a different strategy. But I think the similarity is that, starting with the juniors, we have always tried to improve. We have always pushed each other. “
Individual success in tennis so often begins with a group of talented young men who can nurture each other: consider the great generation of American men from Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang, who have won all the singles titles of the Grande Slam.
Khachanov and Rublev both went to Barcelona as teenagers to train at the 4 Slam Academy. Medvedev headed in the same direction as a teenager, but ended up on the French Riviera, based in Monaco and trained in Cannes, France, at a small academy co-founded by Cervara.
“He is someone who is very open to new things,” Cervara said. “He has a mentality that embraces diversity.”
He learned French quickly and is a fast learner in general, although he is still waiting for his first Grand Slam single title. He could come very soon, although Thiem is a big obstacle and Zverev could be another.
“They still haven’t realized what Marat and I have done in our young careers,” said Kafelnikov of Medvedev and other emerging Russians. “Marat won his first Grand Slam at 20. I did it when I was 22. So those guys have not yet reached our level, but I hope that over the years they will have a better success than me and Marat.”
