The Uzbek tennis player went up to the 53rd line of the ATP rankings

Sergey Danilov, UT

At major tennis tournaments, where prize money rolls over a million mark it is rare when the favorites suffer a massive attack, and the winner can not be predated. However, the Hamburg Open was that rare case.
There were 56 players in the main grid of the tournament with 1,115,000 euros prize money, eight of whom started the second round, and 16 were seeded. However, the number of seeded players started decreasing before the games actually began - three of them were replaced by the so-called "lucky loser", who lost in the final round of qualification. And then the players below 50 in the standings started to cause trouble to the favorites.
After the second round, number of seeded players dropped to five. These unexpected surprises were provided by Finn Jarkko Nieminen who won Frenchman Simon Gilles (9), qualifier Spaniard Pere Riba, who beat his compatriot Albert Montanes (8), Italian Potito Starace, who knocked out Spaniard Tommy Robredo (11)... But the biggest gap in the number of favorites had made Denis Istomin, who made it tough for the fifth racket of the tournament, Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, 18th in the world ranking - 7/6(5), 7/6(7). Incidentally, Tashkent player's next opponent, the German Julian Rayster (121), who got a wild card, met the expectations of organizers and beat the 12th seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu...
It was difficult for Istomin to play with Rayster: the German won the first set 6/3, but after losing the second with the same score, forced the tiebreak in the third. And after a bit of practice with Almagro Dennis won the 13th game with no problem - 7:3.
The two difficult matches did not allow Istomin to build on the success in the game against Andrey Golubev - ex-Russian, who is playing under the flag of Kazakhstan for the second year now (in pair with Denis he played a week earlier in a Swedish Bashtade). Golubev showed that he is in great shape in the match against last year's winner of this tournament, present first racket Nikolay Davydenko. After defeating the leader of the Russian national team, he caught the inspiration, and resolutely moved to his first title. Not only Istomin failed to stop Golubev, but even did the third seeded Austrian J?rgen Melzer, with whom Andrey met in the final. This success of Golubev certainly made the Russian Tennis Federation to regret his switch for Kazakhstan...
As for Istomin, his cruise to the ? finals of this tournament brought him 90 rating points and raised his personal record by four points: on Monday Dennis will take the 53rd spot in the ATP ranking.

30.07.2010

By the material from the "Uzbekistan Today" Information agency

Three out of four winners of NBU Cup have been Uzbek tennis players

Alisher Daniyarov, UT

Summer is not only the hottest time in terms of temperature for young Uzbek people, devoted to sports: in the summer they have an opportunity to fully show what they are capable of in various competitions. Young Uzbek tennis players have a lot of tournaments in the calendar, but international tournaments are always special.
One of them, NBU Cup is held under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) at the capital's Yoshlik stadium. This time it brought together tennis players from Belarus, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, and the US. But most of the participants were boys and girls of Uzbekistan. Well, tennis is becoming more and more popular in the country every year, and the desire of young Uzbeks to conquer the world's peaks is growing not only because of examples of Denis Istomin and Akgul Amanmuradova, but the state concern of its development as well.
"One example of this concern was the establishment of the Republican Tennis School of Olympic Reserves (RTSOR) two years ago," said Samuk Abidov, director of RTSOR. "The state has created favorable conditions for housing, food and organization of trainings for talented boys and girls enrolled in the school from all over the republic. And owing to constant care and support from the Republican Tennis Federation, RTSOR has become a real tennis academy. Its disciples Sabina Sharipova, Abduvaris Saidmuhamedov, Sanjar Fayziev, Timur Ismailov, Valeria Korotina, Dilmurod Hosilov, Rasul Ahmadaliev and others already show good results in different competitions and are included in the national teams. These days, a group of our 14-year old boys together with their coach Elena Mitrofanova are playing in a tournament in Malaysia, Rasul Ahmadaliev is already in the final...
...It was Abduvaris Saidmuhamedov the main troublemaker in the NBU Cup juniors' tournament. And his victory was well-deserved, as he beat all the top three seeded players - Sanjar Fayzieva (3) in the second round, Sergey Shipilova (1) in the semifinal, and Jahongir Jalalov (2) in the final.
The match for the first place between the boys, who together with Shipilov won the Zonal Youth Tournament of the Davis Cup a year ago in Australia, was really masculine: both wanted to win, and it was the character to decide the outcome rather than the skill. In the first set, Jalalov had more of it, when losing 3:5, he managed to bring the game to a tiebreak and won it. And in the third set it was Saidmuhamedov who had to catch up. And he seize the initiative and won the match - 6/7(3), 6/1, 6/4.
Victory of Abduvaris pleased Samuk Abidov, trainer with whom the boy took his first steps in tennis (now a young man is trained by Igor Shelyakin), and his father Abdushukur - Deputy Director of the tennis club Yunusabad, and his friends who were watching the game. And the national team captain Pyotr Lebed calmed crying Jalalov, who was complaining about his own mistakes: "It is good that you can see your mistakes..." By the way, Jahongir won the doubles tournament with Pulat Babajanov.
Winners in the girls' doubles competition were also Uzbek players - Alisa Ogorodova and Natella Nabieva outplayed the Russian-Moldovan duo Yelizaveta Kulichkova-Anna Batiri in the final - 7/6(3), 6/2. But in singles competitions, the best Uzbek player Alina Abdurahimova reached the semifinals and lost to the future champion - the American with Russian roots Elizabeth Anne Nemchinov. Alina, apparently, lacked strength after the quarterfinal match with her countrywoman Karolina Chyornaya - she won it in three difficult sets - 5/7, 7/6(6), 7/5.
... When this article was almost written, Abidov called the author: "Rasul Ahmadaliev won the final in Kuala Lumpur!" We could have put a full stop on this happy note. But we will not: the life of tennis does not stop. And members of Tashkent battles sheathed rackets only to go to Farg'ona, where they will play in the next tournament...

By the material from the "Uzbekistan Today" Information agency

Albina Habibullina of Tashkent together with Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan won of the $25,000 Women's tennis tournament in Almaty.
It was Palkina (5th seeded of the tournament) who knocked Habibullina out from the singles competition in the second round. But this did not prevent the girls from playing well in a duet. They easily reached the final, where they beat Ukrainian Yulia Beygeltsimer and Englishwoman Emily Webley Smith - 6/4, 6/4.
Another Uzbek player Nigina Abduraimova lost in the second round to Russian Darya Kuchmina with a score of 4/6, 3/6. But before that, Nigina managed to stop the sixth seeded of the tournament Elena Kulikova from Russia - 6/2, 7/5. However, Kulikova evened the score in doubles, after defeating (in a duet with another Russian Evgenia Pashkova) Abduraimova and Zarina Dias of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinal.

06.08.2010

By the material from the "Uzbekistan Today" Information agency

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