Russians run way with Davis Cup championship

Daniil Medvedev, practicing in Indian Wells in
October, won all five of his Davis Cup singles
matches in straight sets. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev carried the Russian Tennis Federation to its first Davis Cup championship in 15 years today.

   Medvedev and Rublev — ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in singles, respectively — won in straight sets again to clinch a victory over Croatia, the 2018 champion, in Madrid. Croatia played in its third Davis Cup final in five years.

   Rublev defeated No. 279 Borna Gojo 6-4, 7-6 (5), giving the RTF a 1-0 lead. Medvedev followed with a 7-6 (7), 6-2 win over No. 30 Marin Cilic in a matchup of U.S. Open champions. Cilic and Medvedev won at Flushing Meadows in 2014 and this year, respectively.

   The scheduled doubles match, top-ranked Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia against Aslan Karatsev and Rublev, was canceled.

   The RTF lost only one live match in five ties during the Davis Cup as Medvedev, 25, and Rublev, 24, went 9-1 combined in singles. Medvedev, who has a freakish combination of size (6-foot-6 or 1.98 meters) and agility, won all five of his singles matches in straight sets.

   Rublev played in the 2015 Aptos Challenger in Northern California at 17, losing to former No. 2 Tommy Haas in the first round. Rublev was 9 when Russia won the 2006 Davis Cup with Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native who trained in NorCal as a junior and professional.

   Croatia was missing former world No. 12 Borna Coric, who had shoulder surgery in May.

Tursunov falls in rare all-Russian semifinal

Moscow natives, left to right, Mischa Zverev, Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Andreev pose
at last year's Comerica Bank Challenger in Aptos, Calif. Zverev moved to Germany
at 4 years old, Tursunov to Northern California at 12 and Andreev to Spain at 15.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   The United States and Australia aren't the only tennis powers that have declined.
   Quietly, Russia also has stumbled.
   The glory days, when Russia won three straight Grand Slam women's singles titles in 2004 and the Davis Cup in 2006, seem like ancient history.
   What happened?
   Former world No. 1 Marat Safin, 2004 French Open champion Anastasia Myskina and two-time Grand Slam runner-up Elena Dementieva retired.
   Former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova, 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva, and former top-20 players Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Andreev have battled injuries.
   Svetlana Kuznetsova has not advanced past the quarterfinals of a Slam since winning the 2009 French Open for her second major title.
   Nikolay Davydenko, who reached a career-high No. 3 in 2006, has never been the same since being investigated for match fixing even though he was cleared five years ago.
   Mikhail Youzhny, ranked as high as No. 8 in 2008, has slipped with age.
   Russia still has six women in the top 30 and six men in the top 100. But the nation has only one woman, No. 3 Sharapova, in the top 15 and no men in the top 20 (although Youzhny will return on Monday). 
   Youzhny and Tursunov -- 31- and 30-year-old Moscow natives, respectively, and two of the wackiest players on the men's tour -- met Saturday in the first all-Russian semifinal on the ATP World Tour in more than three years.
   Youzhny, ranked 21st, triumphed 6-2, 6-4 in 75 minutes in on a hardcourt in Valencia, Spain, to improve his career record against No. 39 Tursunov, who trains in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, to 3-1.
   The unseeded Youzhny will face top seed and defending champion David Ferrer of Spain in today's final.
   Youzhny has an elaborate, trademark victory celebration somewhat reminiscent of San Francisco Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval's ritual when he steps to the plate. Youzhny spins his racket and then waves to the crowd with his left hand, holds his racket face on top of his head with his left hand while saluting each side of the stands with his right, and finally pumps his right fist.
   Also, after missing an easy shot five years ago in Miami, Youzhny hit himself in the head with the frame of his racket three times, drawing blood.
   Tursunov, meanwhile, is well-known for his self-deprecating, irreverent sense of humor. Here are some highlights from his 2011 "bag check" video for Wilson Sporting Goods:
   --On his tournament accreditation badge depicting a big letter "L": " 'L' for loser, I guess."
   --On a callous on his hand: "I'm single, so ... "
   --While flipping through a few bills in his wallet: "That's all my prize money for this year."
   To watch the video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhMLG8sIw4U.
   In the doubles final today in Valencia, top seeds and former Stanford All-Americans Bob and Mike Bryan will play second-seeded Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil.
   The 35-year-old Bryan twins seek their 11th doubles crown of the year, which would equal their career high, and 94th overall.

Tursunov loses in Davis Cup doubles

   Even though Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn were playing at home in Russia, their straight-set loss Saturday in the Davis Cup came as little surprise.
   Tursunov, a longtime Sacramento-area resident, and Kunitsyn fell to Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares of Brazil 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in Kazan, Russia.
   Brazil leads the best-of-five-match World Group playoff 2-1 entering today's reverse singles matches. The winner will play in next year's World Group, while the loser will be relegated to zone competition.
   Melo and Soares have played 42 matches together this year to Tursunov and Kunitsyn's two.
   "I think the key was we don't play much doubles together at all," Kunitsyn, formerly Tursunov's regular partner, was quoted as saying on daviscup.com. "When you get to crucial points and you don't have the experience of playing doubles on a weekly basis, you're obviously going to make some wrong decisions or not take the risk you normally would."
   Also, Tursunov and Kunitsyn, both former top-50 doubles players, have fallen to No. 93 and No. 221, respectively. In contrast, Soares is ranked 22nd and Melo 35th.
  Today's scheduled singles matches are Mikhail Youhzny of Russia against Thomaz Bellucci followed by Igor Andreev of Russia against Ricardo Mello.
   Redding Women's Challenger -- Order was restored in the $25,000 Oak River Rehab Challenger at Sun Oaks Tennis and Fitness.
   After three seeds were upset in Friday's quarterfinals, each of which lasted three sets, third-seeded Julia Boserup and fifth-seeded Olga Puchkova breezed to straight-set victories.
   Boserup defeated wild card Allie Will 6-2, 6-3 in a matchup of 20-year-old residents of Boca Raton, Fla. Puchkova, a Russian who will turn 24 on Sept. 27, dismissed Yuliana Lizarazo, 18, of Colombia 6-1, 6-2.
   Boserup and Puchkova, both 5-foot-11, will vie for the title today at noon in their first career meeting. Boserup, ranked No. 293, seeks her first career singles title and Puchkova, who reached No. 32 in 2007 but has fallen to No. 287 because of injuries, her second.
   After the singles final, Yasmin Schnack of Elk Grove will play for her second consecutive Redding doubles title. The top-seeded team of Schnack and Maria Sanchez of Modesto will face second-seeded Brittany Augustine of Carson and Whitney Jones of St. Louis.
   Schnack made her professional debut in last year's tournament and won the doubles crown with Sacramento native Christina Fusano, who retired two weeks ago.