Kremlin Cup 2010: Saturday’s Review
At the close of Saturday’s play, 23rd October, six matches in all were played. Alongside two men’s singles and one doubles match, two women’s singles and one doubles final were scheduled for the day. All the remaining
matches were semi finals.
First matchup of the day was between the 8th seed Maria Martinez from Spain and second seed Victoria Azarenka from Belarus. Martinez had moved into the semi finals by defeating the Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova in her
quarterfinal match on Friday with a straight sets win. The final match score was 6-2, 6-3. Azarenka had embarrassed the Russian Alisa Kleybanova in their quarterfinal match, defeating her by 6-1, 6-3 knocking the Russian out of the running for a Motherland
title win. Azarenka smoothly sailed into the final of the women’s singles, defeating Martinez by a twin set score of 6-3, 6-3.
Seeded sixth in the tournament, Russian professional Maria Kirilenko faced her compatriot, the unseeded Vera Dushevina in the second semi final match of the day for the women’s singles. Kirilenko had eased her way into the semi
finals without a single set loss throughout the tournament. She had played the Kazakh Zarina Diyas in her quarterfinal match. Her no loss streak continued as she humiliated Dushevina with a 6-1, 6-1 victory. Although Dushevina is out of the running, Russia
still has a shot at the title in Kirilenko.
The women’s singles matches were followed by the men’s singles semi finals played one after the other in the central court. First match was that of the unseeded Uzbek Denis Istomin and 4th seed Marcos Baghdatis from
Cyprus. The two players went head to head at the court and played superbly with two of the three sets going into tie break. Baghdatis won the first set 6-4, however Istomin bounced back and took the second set into tie break and ultimately won the set. Istomin’s
good fortune did not continue into the third set and he eventually lost the set on tie break. The final match score was 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.
Serbian Viktor Troicki met Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay in his semifinal match. Troicki had earlier faced the Argentinean Horacio Zeballos in his quarterfinal match and with a straight set win had eased his way into the semi finals.
It seems the Fates graced him once more as he embarrassed Cuevas on the court and won the match 6-3, 6-3.
Troicki having moved into the final will face Baghdatis to fight it out for the men’s singles title. The pair has played each other only once before, when they went head to head at Medibank International Sydney earlier this year;
Baghdatis won that match 7-5, 6-3. Will Troicki be able to level his head to head score with Baghdatis or will the Cyprus professional take a two point lead? The answer will be in the results of the Kremlin Cup 2010 final on Sunday.
One decisive matchup of the day was the women’s doubles final between the team of Argentinean Gisela Dulko and the Italian Flavia Pennetta, and the pair of Martinez and Italian Sara Errani. The first title winners of the tournament
were decided when Gisela and Pennetta defeated their opponents. Having won the first set 6-3, the pair lost the second set to Martinez and Errani by 2-6. The third set of the game went into tie break, but Gisela and Pennetta proved to be more than Martinez
and Errani could handle and ultimately won the third set, and in effect the match. The final match score was 6-3, 2-6, 1-0(6).
Although Errani’s team lost the final she could find some consolation in the fact that Pennetta made an Italy win possible.
The last matchup of the day was the semifinal between the Serbian team of Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic, and the Argentinean team of Zeballos and Maximo Gonzalez. The Argentineans had secured a spot for themselves in the semifinals
by defeating the top seeded team of Aisam ul Haq Qureshi from Pakistan and Rohan Bopanna from India. Their luck from the semifinals continued when they won the first set against the Serbians. However the Serbians upped their performance, and won the next two
sets making the final match score, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0(7). The Serbians will face the Russian team of Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov in the final on Sunday.
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