Kremlin Cup 2009 tennis tournament

This year, 11 female tennis players competed at the Kremlin Cup. Most top 10 world-ranked female players missed the tournament for various reasons. Vera Zvonareva was one Russian player in the top 10 who did attend.

Last year’s Kremlin Cup finalist Vera Zvonareva was forced out early this year – she lost to Bulgarian player Tsvetana Pironkova.

Another Russian player, Nadia Petrova, couldn’t handle Ukraine’s Alyona Bondarenko, who had previously beaten Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

Maria Kirilenko managed to reach the quarterfinals by beating Poland’s Agnieska Radwanska and Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak. But in the quarterfinal, Italian Francesca Schiavone stopped Kirilenko from reaching the semifinals.

Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

Kremlin Cup winner Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

The highlight of the men’s singles was the match between Marat Safin and Nikolai Davydenko. The two Russian players squared off in the first round. The duel ended in a 4-6 6-4 6-2 win for Safin.

Nikolai Davydenko.

Safin left the competition in the second round, beaten by 21-year-old Evgeny Korolev.

The most successful Russian player in the tournament turned out to be Mikhail Youzhny, who started with a victory over Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos. In the second round, it took Youzhny less than an hour to secure a place in the quarterfinals by beating Italian Potito Starace. Youzhny reached the semifinals with equal confidence by prevailing over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.

In the semifinals, Youzhny met Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin. It took a little more than an hour and two sets for Youzhny to reach the final

In the final, Youzhny faced Serbia’s number two player, Janko Tipsarevic, who earlier had an easy win over Ukrainian Ilya Marchenko.

Tipsarevic won the first set on a tie-breaker, but Youzhny won the next two, denying his opponent even one game in the second set. The Kremlin Cup ended in a win for Russian player Mikhail Youzhny.