A fragment of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 was playing at the Madrid Arena by the international ban on playing their national anthem due to their anti-doping regulations.
That is why Russia plays the final phase of the Davis Cup as the Russian Tennis Federation. With that flag and with that music they already participated in the last Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
The colors in clothing and in the heart do not change for Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Aslan Karatsev, Karen Khachanov and Evgeny Donskoy..
At the command of General Shamil Tarpischev, the longest-lived captain -44 years in the saddle-, the best quintet in the world debuted yesterday with a victory against Ecuador. And he did it with everything, without reserving anyone.
Tarpischev, who debuted in the chair as the Soviet Union against Yugoslavia in 1974 and was absent from 1994 to 1997, is only expressed in your native language.
It is enough for your players to understand what you expect of them. He acknowledges that the key to the explosion of tennis after the fall of the USSR was the arrival in the Kremlin of Boris Yeltsin. “When Yeltsin appeared in shorts and a racket in hand, everything changed.“, remember.
“We do not consider ourselves very famous in our country.“, says Rublev openly, number five of the ranking and that yesterday gave the first point to his against Roberto Quiroz by 6-3, 4-6 and 6-1.
Andrey packed his bags five years ago and showed up at Gav’s 4Slam Tennis Academy. He was looking for a coach who would continue the early career success of the junior title at Roland Garros.
Since then, the helm of his tennis belongs to the Spanish coach Fernando Vicente, absent these days at the Madrid Arena. Last year, in fact, the ATP awarded them the award for best coach and revelation player.
Medvedev, for his part, he has been the only tennis player capable of discussing Novak Djokovic’s hegemony in the Grand Slam. He stole the glory at the last US Open.
It was ruled out two campaigns ago to contest the final phase of the maximum competition for passes, but this time he wanted to be with his compatriots to complete a historic triplet for the country.
The triple crown
Russia won unbeaten last February in the ATP Cup, with triumphs over Argentina, Japan, Germany and Italy. The foils were imposed in the first edition of the Billie Jean King Cup… Con Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova, Veronika Kudermetova y Ekaterina Alexandrova terminaron invictas.
Success is based on talent. There is no coexistence as a team, although Rublev and Khachanov are friends as are Pavlyuchenkova and Kasatkina.
Vendaval Daniel
Andrey and Karen train regularly in Barcelona and the Belarusian Ilya Ivashka joins the group.
A case apart is Medvedev, a Monte Carlo resident who does a bit of his schedule. He arrived in Madrid on Wednesday, entered on Thursday and yesterday he defeated Emilio Gmez 6-0 and 6-2.
The same player who had been two points away from defeating Pablo Carreo on Friday surrenders to the power, strength and talent of the world number two. Karatsev, son of a logger. exploded late.
At the age of 27, he passed the preview of the last Australian Open and placed top 100. He finished the season in 18th place and with titles in Dubai and Moscow.
Aslan, who won Doha next to Rublev, repeated even with him in Madrid. They defeated Hidalgo and Gonzalo Escobar 6-4, 4-6 and 6-4.
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