Kazan Kremlin Cup

Teymuraz Gabashvili: 2011 Universiade runner-up aiming to reach final in Kazan

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:14:47 +0000

Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili is a freshman in Kazan. The freshman, which could be viewed as the most prominent in the three years of Kazan Kremlin Cup international history. Three years ago Teymuraz ranked 59th in the ATP Rating list, and half a year ago he came to another landmark in his pro-career, winning silver at the 2011 World Summer Universiade in Shenzhen.
We have asked the rising tennis star a number of personal questions to get to know him better.
- Teymuraz, judging upon your surname, you are Georgian, aren’t you?
- My father is Georgian, and my mother is Russian. (Corr. – Gabashvili was born in Tbilisi, and moved to Moscow when he was 9)
- Tennis players are often seen at changing sport nationalities. Why do you think they do?
- It often happens, that the changes are caused by serious reasons, to say, by motivation for progress. A group of Russians, for instance, have changed their nationality transferring to Kazakhstan (Andrey Golubev, Mikhail Kukushkin, Yury Schukin and Evgeny Korolev) to solve their financial problems. They had no perspectives for self-realization in Russia, and none would help them much, while Kazakhstan promised to support them financially. Their collaboration has proved to be quite beneficial to both parties. When Golubev, Kukushkin and C took the decision to move to Kazakhstan they had been in the second hundred, and now they have significantly raised their ranking positions and entered Kazakhstan to the World Group of the Davis Cup.
- Georgia could also have significantly raised its positions in case at least three Georgian-routed participants of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012 played for it, I mean you, Shalva Dzhanashia and Gleb Bagatelia. Would you agree to play for Georgia?
- I have never received an offer of the kind. You know, tennis in Georgia is not the major sport, unlike it used to be in USSR, when they had had the strongest school and top players.
- Everyone knows and remembers the old-time Georgian tennis stars Alexander Metreveli, Teymuraz Kakulia, Vladimir Gabrichidze and Leila Meskhi. Where are they now?
- They are somewhere in the shade, since tennis is not the top priority in Georgia.
- You are here in Kazan with your coach, aren’t you?
- I have here my first coach Andrey Kesarev, who promised to help me during the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012.
- Kazan Kremlin Cup has never had a Russian winner.
- I believe, this year we will be able break the rule.
- Will you?
- I hope, I will, however, there are a number of good players in Kazan, young rising player Evgeny Donskoy is among them. Alexander Kudryavtsev is in good form after his successful start at Australian Open. He has managed to enter the main draw, for the first time in his career, which is quite remarkable for the 26 year old athlete. He played Roger Federer in his first round with a few chances to win, however he played on the Central court of the Grand Slam tournament, which was really amazing for a player who is so far out of the first ATP hundred.

Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

RESULTS – JANUARY 31, 2012

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:40:37 +0000

Men’s
Singles – First Round
[1] M Jaziri (TUN) d K Kravchuk (RUS) 64 62
[2] A Haider-Maurer (AUT) d U Ignatik (BLR) 62 64
J Pospisil (CZE) d [3] A Brugues-Davi (ESP) 63 61
A Menendez-Maceiras (ESP) d [4] D Munoz-De La Nava (ESP) 64 76(5)
[5] J Hajek (CZE) d J Sousa (POR) 63 64
[6] T Gabashvili (RUS) d [Q] R Albot (MDA) 61 62
[8] J Zopp (EST) d [Q] T Fabbiano (ITA) 76(6) 62
H Heliovaara (FIN) d S Bubka (UKR) 64 64
[Q] M Ledovskikh (RUS) d [Q] E Kirillov (RUS) 75 57 63
A Kudryavtsev (RUS) d [WC] D Zagidullin (RUS) 61 62
M Copil (ROU) d A Weintraub (ISR) 62 61

Men’s
Doubles – First Round
D Lojda (CZE) / J Marti (ESP) d [2] A Menendez-Maceiras (ESP) / D Munoz-De La Nava (ESP) 64 76(8)
[4] E Donskoy (RUS) / T Gabashvili (RUS) d [WC] I Belyaev (RUS) / A Manegin (RUS) 62 61
S Bubka (UKR) / E Kirillov (RUS) d R Bemelmans (BEL) / U Ignatik (BLR) 36 64 10-4

Competition Day#2 knocked out the last of the Tatars

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:32:44 +0000

Daniyal Zagidullin finished his third edition of the Kazan Kremlin Cup in a clash against Alexander Kudryavtsev.
Competition Day#2 of the Kazan Kremlin Cup featured a number of clashes with the same score. What was even more surprising about all that, all they resided at the Central court of the Kazan Tennis Academy. Marius Copil from Romania defeated Israeli Amir Weintraub. It didn’t take defending champion long to secure a confident win, letting his opponent to take just 3 games in 2 sets – 6:2, 6:1. The same figures held true for Daniyal Zagidullin and Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev. The local athlete missed luck in decisive points to disappoint his home crowd, finishing his third edition of the Lazan Kremlin Cup early in its start – 1:6, 2:6. Teymuraz Gabashvili had almost no problems defeating Radu Albot from Moldova – 6:1, 6:2.
All the other clashes of the competition day #2 depicted variety of scenarios. Second seed Andreas Haider-Maurer celebrated a win over Belarusian Vladimir Ignatik – 6:4, 6:2. Sergey Bubka-the Junior lost to Harry Heliovaara – 4:6, 4:6 to cut short his third edition of the Kazan Kremlin Cup in singles, however he will try on his luck in doubles. Spanish Adrian Menendez-Maceiras managed to beat his compatriot fourth seed Daniel Munos De La Nava – 6:4, 7:6 (5).
Qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh defeated his vis-a-vis Evgeny Kirillov – 7:5, 5:7, 6:4. As a matter of fact, Ledovskikh performed a sort of sensation, knocking out head after head 2010 Kazan Cup winner Michal Przysiezhny and 2011 semi-final runner-up Evgeny Kirillov.
The first seed Malek Jaziri from Tunisia was to show his sport character to beat Russian Konstantin Kravchuk – 6:4, 6:2. After a heavy loss of the 1st set, Kravchuk started to question referee’s actions in the second which brought him no luck and to the opposite, had a negative impact on his game. It took Jaziri 1 hour 22 minutes to seal his 1st round win in two sets.
The first court turned to be lucky for the Czechs. Jaroslav Pospisil defeated Spaniard third seed Arnau Brugues-Davi – 6:3, 6:1, followed by the win of the fifth seed Jan Hajek over Portugal player Joao Sousa – 6:3, 6:4.
Competition Day #2 has also brought two lucky loosers to the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012. Ilya Marchenko from Ukraine will soon be returned in play, replacing James Word from Great Britain, who has received an injury. One more lucky looser will be known later, the spot has become vacant due to Jan Mertl from Czech Republic retired due to his injury problems.

Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

Rinad Zagidullin: Kazan Kremlin Cup serves as a good start in the season

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:16 +0000

Director of the tournament speaks about the third edition, its main draw composition and plans for the future.

Third edition – the strongest one
We are happy to welcome all the participants and guests of the third edition of the Kazan Kremlin Cup. We are pleased to announce a number of improvements we have introduced this year. One of them is we have provided the floor for the on-lines and live broadcasting of all the matches of the tournament. The broadcasting is realized at the official web-site of the tournament kazancup.ru. We have managed to preserve the same cover on the courts we had last year, which enjoyed much praise from our participants.
I’m happy to state, that the composition of the main is very impressive, while the players from the ATP third hundred were forced to play qualification games. We have the pleasure to see here a number of the previous edition stars, and Marius Copil from Romania among them. He has evidently come to defend his title to enter his name in the history of our tournament for the second time, since we have never had the same champion two years in a row
Frosts is not the obstacle
It’s a pleasure for us to have the same Supervisor as last year, Mr. Hans Juergen Ochs. When he recollected of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2011, he confessed, that he had pretty much liked everything about the tournament, but for the frosty weather we had had last year. However he is the second time here, which means, that our positive sides have covered the disadvantages of the natural character we aren’t able to change. I’m confident we won’t have any organizational problems, and so is he. Kazan is an experienced sport organizer, having staged a number of top rank tournaments in course of the previous years, Tatarstan Open, Davis Cup RUS vs Brazil are among them. And this is definitely not by chance, that Russian Tennis Federation called Tatarstan one of the best rising tennis regions of the country.
Upgrading the tournament status
There is just one way to raise the tournament status: this is to increase the fund. What we have got now is 75,000$, while the ATP Challenger tournaments can have funds up to 150,000$, following by the ATP tournaments with professionals from the first ATP hundred and the prize fund starting from 250,000$. As a matter of fact, there is a principal agreement between the government of our Republic and the Russian Tennis Federation concerning the idea to establish a such-like top level event in Kazan. So there is a chance to have something like the Kremlin Cup or St.Petersburg Open here in the near future.
A good start of the season
Kazan tournaments have always been a good start for young and rising players. Among the ones to have the benefits were Tobias Kamke, runner-up of 2010 Kazan Kremlin Cup, later on ITF recognized as 2010 best young player and Yuliya Putintseva, Tatarstan Open winner, which turned to be a runner-up of the Junior Australian Open-2012. Davis Cup match RUS vs.Brazil has also ended successfully here in Kazan to make possible for the team Russia to preserve the residence in the World elite Group. There is no doubt, that Kazan is a happy site for tennis competitions. We will hope, that it will soon become successful for the local athletes as well, who are trying hard to match the constantly rising level of our top competitions.
Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012 welcomes orphans

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:58:10 +0000

On 1 February, 2012 Directorate of the Kazan Kremlin Cup together with the Tennis Academy of Kazan are going to establish a charity event, welcoming orphans, bringing up at the Nurlat Children House. 28 children aged 6 – 18 will have an agenda full of actions, starting from excursion about the Tennis Academy of Kazan to proceed with the tasty lunch, following by the tennis show. Young orphans will have the unique opportunity to learn tennis and watch a number of games in singles and doubles of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012.
Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

Favorites secured confident wins

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:30:12 +0000

Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012 has launched the main draw competitions at the Tennis Academy of Kazan.

In singles, the wins have been celebrated by the players having a better ATP Ranking. Javier Marti from Spain defeated Kazanian athlete Aydyn Akhmetshin 6:1, 6:0, while the seventh seed Russian Evgeny Donskoy left no chances for another wild-card holder Anton Manegin – 6:0, 6:2.

The same trend held true for doubles clashes. International duo Marius Copil (ROU) – Daniyal Zagidullin (RUS) had won just one game playing the Czechs Jan Hajek – Ivo Minar (1:6, 0:6). The first seed brothers Sonchai and Sonchat Rathiwatana defeated Arnau Brugues-Davi (ESP) – Joao Sousa – 6:4, 6:3. Just once surprise occurred in the Russian derby, where wild card holders Aslan Karatsev – Richard Muzayev snatched a win over Konstantin Kravchuk – Alexander Kudryavtsev – 6:4, 7:5.

Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

Qualification finals determined 4 qualifiers to the main draw

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:44:51 +0000

Qualification finals, conducted on 30 January, 2012, determined the composition of the main draw in full size for the 3rd edition of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012.

As a result, four tickets to the main draw were taken by Radu Albot (ROM), Thomas Fabbiano (ITA), Mikhail Ledovskikh and Evgeny Kirillov (RUS), who left no chances for their opponents: Michal Przysiezny (POL), Ervand Gasparyan (RUS), Denis Matsukevich (RUS) and Ilya Marchenko (UKR) respectively.

Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

Hans Juergen Ochs: Looking forward to have a busy tennis week

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:41:18 +0000

On 30 January, 2012 organizers conducted press-conference to officially launch the third edition of the Kazan Kremlin Cup.
The press-conference saw presence of Rinad Zagidullin, Kazan Kremlin Cup director and Tatarstan Tennis Federation Vice President, current champion Marius Copil from Romania, and Supervisor of the tournament Hans-Juergen Ochs. The German specialist is not a newcomer in Kazan, and he is pretty well acquainted with the Russian frosts. However, Hans Juergen was very polite in his greeting speech to the journalists, which later on had no hesitation to ask him a number of questions.

- It is a pleasure for me to come to Kazan for the second time, – said Hans Juergen Ochs in particular. – I am looking forward to have a busy tennis week, full of interesting clashes. The start of the tournament was pretty engaging. We have got friendly atmosphere here to play back for the Russian frosts. Together with the perfect organisation of the tournament these constitute heavy arguments for the players to come to Kazan. There was no surprise for me, that the sport level of competitors at the Kazan Kremlin Cup has become much higher comparing to last year.

Corr. – The following question is addressed not to the Supervisor of the tournament, but to the German citizen. Kazan tournaments have always been successful for Your compatriots: Julian Reister and Tobias Kamke dominated here in 2010, Andreas Beck, Dominik Meffert and Simon Stadler were a success last year. Why do we have no German players this year’s edition?

- That’s a very good question! As a matter, this has surprised me a lot as well. Personally, I have just one answer for it. In general, my compatriots have enjoyed success at ATP Challenger tournaments, and now they have to move upstairs. They are trying their luck at higher rank tournaments. «Chalengers» are mostly for the young players, where they can learn experience and collect rating points. That’s pretty impossible to stay long in “Challengers” in case a player is ambitious and has to move up.
But if we speak in particular, Tobias Kamke is now injured, while Andreas Beck used to play in Australian Open, where he was stopped by Roger Federer in the 2nd round of the main draw.

- Will we have lucky loosers at the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012?

- We won’t. What is a “lucky looser”? That is a tennis player, who has the luck to take the ticket to the main draw in case one of the qualifiers retires. We are lucky to have no such cases this year and therefore we won’t have lucky loosers.

Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

Marius Copil: My new haircut doesn’t match Russian frosts

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:36:08 +0000

Defending champion of the Kazan Kremlin Cup talks about the weather, a warm coat and his new hair-cut.
Marius Copil from Romania will open up the new chapter in the Kazan Kremin Cup’s history. With no hesitation he agreed to join the press-conference, officially launching the third edition of the tournament, to become the first ever foreign player-participant of the event.

-I’m here in Kazan for the second time, – started the champion. – I was very well aware of the severe Russian climate in winter, that’s why I brought to Kazan a warm coat, while the further thing I had done was not so clever at all. I had my hair cut. My father advised me to do that to start a new successful chapter in my life, so now I’m a bit frozen (smiling).

Last year here was a lot more snow, and it is much better, what we have now, – noted Copil. – It seems to me, that the weather has become a bit warmer this winter, or maybe I have already got used to the Russian climate!

Last year’s success was a good start for me, however further on the season turned to be not so lucky. I got injured, and it took me around three months to recover. I do hope, that Kazanian fans will come and shout for me as they did when I played in the final. They have helped me a lot!

- Whom would you call the strongest opponents in the main draw?
- There are plenty of good players! To begin with, I will meet Amir Weintraub in the 1st round, in case I win, we’ll see who will be the next. I will also have to watch my possible opponents playing to judge their real power and potential.
- Last year you didn’t find time to try the national Tatar cuisine, called “chak-chak”, did you?
- I only ate one cheesecake at a restaurant! As a matter of fact, I usually follow some traditions when I win. For instance, I may have dinner in the same restaurants, sit at the same tables and etc.
- And what if your table is occupied?
- I will wait till it is free. One small example: last year my coach was forced to eat the same meal for almost one week. The same pizza, everyday!

P. S. Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup wishes good luck to Marius Copil and will be supporting him since his first play in doubles. Today, on 30 January, he will start his Kazan Kremlin Cup performance in doubles teaming with the local-born tennis player Daniyal Zagidullin.

Press-office of the Kazan Kremlin Cup-2012

Results 30 january

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:41:13 +0000

Men’s
Singles – First Round
[7] E Donskoy (RUS) d [WC] A Manegin (RUS) 60 62
J Marti (ESP) d [WC] A Akhmetshin (RUS) 61 60
D Lojda (CZE) d [WC] S Vovk (RUS) 63 61

Men’s
Doubles – First Round
[1] S Ratiwatana (THA) / S Ratiwatana (THA) d A Brugues-Davi (ESP) / J Sousa (POR) 64 63
[WC] A Karatsev (RUS) / R Muzaev (RUS) d [3] K Kravchuk (RUS) / A Kudryavtsev (RUS) 64 75
H Heliovaara (FIN) / J Zopp (EST) d M Jaziri (TUN) / D Matsukevich (RUS) 75 57 10-4
J Hajek (CZE) / I Minar (CZE) d [WC] M Copil (ROU) / D Zagidullin (RUS) 61 60

Mens
Qualifying Singles – Quarterfinals
Qualifying – E Kirillov (RUS) d I Marchenko (UKR) 64 75
Qualifying – T Fabbiano (ITA) d D Matsukevich (RUS) 64 67(7) 62
Qualifying – R Albot (MDA) d E Gasparyan (RUS) 63 76(4)
Qualifying – M Ledovskikh (RUS) d M Przysiezny (POL) 62 57 76(1)