It was not another day last Sunday. In Madrid, Russian tennis closed an incredible year with the conquest of the Davis Cup, a trophy that it had not won since 2006. That year in which Argentina led by David Nalbandian just lost in fifth point at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev were just 10 and 9 years old respectively, and both dreamed at that time, perhaps, of being in the place of Safin, Davydenko and company. Today they not only just got their first Davis – Medvedev did not give up a set in the finals and Rublev barely lost to Spaniard Feliciano López – but they were the two most important pillars of their country in the season.
The great 2021 of the Russians started early, in the ATP Cup. In Melbourne, Medvedev and Rublev themselves swept, they won all their matches losing only two sets on their way to the title and celebrated alongside Aslan Karatsev – who from the following week would become Australia’s great revelation by reaching the semifinals from the classification- and Evgeny Donskoy.
At Roland Garros, it was the turn of the Russian women to take action. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reached the final and Elena Vesnina, along with Karatsev himself, took the title in the mixed doubles.
Then came the Olympics. And in Tokyo the Russian Olympic Committee – Russian athletes could not participate under their flag as happened in the Davis Cups and Billie Jean King – won the medal table with one gold and two silver as a result of the final won by Rublev-Pavlyuchenkova in the mixed doubles. and the finals lost by Karen Khachanov on the single and Karatsev-Vesnina on the same mixed doubles.
Later, at Flushing Meadows, Medvedev achieved his highest point of the year by defeating Novak Djokovic in the final to not only prevent the world number 1 from the Grand Slam but to clinch his first title in a Grand Slam tournament that catapulted him. , definitely, to be the great enemy of the Serbian for 2022.
Was there more after New York? Sure there was. Because before Davis the Russians won the Billie Jean King thanks to a huge Liudmila Samsonova very well supported by Daria Kasatkina, Pavlyuchenkova herself and Veronika Kudermetova, who left behind, for example, the local Czech Republic, the favorite for the title in Prague .
In addition, the end of the year finds seven titles on the men’s circuit (Medvedev won four, Karatsev won two and Rublev, one) and four in the women’s (Kasatkina won two and Kudermetova and Samsonova, one each). Plus? Of course, there are four Russians in the top 100 (two top ten) and eight Russians among the 100 best tennis players in the world …
Russia became Russia again and today it is again a huge power as it was in the 1990s when Kafelnikov and Safin became world number 1s or later when Safina and Sharapova achieved a similar feat. What are the secrets of the new success? Actually, the usual ones: the school of the famous Spartak club in Moscow; Shamil Tarpischev, a man who has been a key player in his country’s tennis since he became the captain of the Soviet Davis team in 1974 thanks to his links with the highest levels of power close to Leonid Brezhnev; and the humility to seek growth abroad and, above all, on slow pitches. Hence, many Russian players disembark year after year in the main Spanish academies to improve their game on brick dust.
Russian tennis is the great candidate to regain power next year. In 2021 it already did so in both branches. It was a warning that, in reality, may go well beyond next season.
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