KAZAN, Russia, July 15 (R-Sport) - Russian tennis players Elena Vesnina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won gold in the women’s doubles at the World University Games on Monday.
Vesnina and Pavlyuchenkova took time out from their WTA Tour schedules to compete at the Games in the central Russian city of Kazan, where they were by far the highest-ranked players at No. 22 and 23 in the world respectively.
The Russians won gold with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Thailand’s Lertcheewakarn Noppawan, ranked 302, and Wongteanchai Varatchaya, who is not listed on the WTA rankings website. Pavlyuchenkova had been competing with an injured left leg after falling down the stairs last month.
Vesnina has twice competed in Olympic doubles, reaching the quarterfinals on both occasions, and Pavlyuchenkova said she now wanted to play at the next Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
"Lena's been to the Olympics twice, and I haven't been once yet, but that's my dream and the Universiade is practice," she said.
Bronze medals went to the Polish pair of Barbara Sobaszkiewicz and Sylwia Zagorska, and the Belarusian duo of Darya Lebedesheva and Polina Pekhova.
