If you have questions about Zhenya you can still either post a comment, or contact me by email, I’ll definitely take time to reply. So, don’t hesitate.

You can also register to the newsletter, so if/when the blog resumes you’ll be informed right away.

Once again, sorry…

We’re happy to welcome this new tennis season, and hope it will be a great one for Zhenya.

Unfortunately, due to a really busy schedule, the blog will resume only on the Australian Open. Meanwhile, Zhenya’s match results will be posted on the blog’s twitter.

Follow us !

- And for those of you who were wondering, yes, Zhenya is now playing for Kazakhstan -

]]> http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/welcome-2010/feed/ 0 zhenyasupporters http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/end-of-season/ http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/end-of-season/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:14:33 +0000 zhenyasupporters http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/?p=740 ]]> The season is over for Zhenya !

He was supposed to play Paris BNP Paribas Master as his last tournament of 2009, but the Special Exempt’s rule has worked against him, and he’s simply been kicked out of the qualies draw.

Therefore, we’ll have to wait January 2010 to see him back on courts.

He will have to go through two qualification rounds before getting to the main draw. He is the #1 seed of the qualies, and will make his debuts there against a young local player, [WC]S.EHRAT

The complete qualies draw is available : here

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[1]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def [WC]S.EHRAT (SUI) 6/1 6/0

Next round he will be opposed to [7]J. HAJEK (CZE).

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[1]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def [7]J. HAJEK (CZE) 6/3 6/1

With this second win, Zhenya gets in the main draw, where he will face S.BOLLELI (ITA) in the first round.

The main draw is available : here

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[Q]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def S.BOLLELI (ITA) 3/6 7/6(4) 6/2

Next round he will face J.CHARDY (FRA).

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[Q]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def J.CHARDY (FRA) 6/4 7/6(1)

His next opponent will be the toughest one of all, R.FEDERER (SUI).

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[1]R.FEDERER (SUI) def [Q]E.KOROLEV (RUS) 6/3 6/2

Zhenya played a solid first set, only getting broken when he made two double faults and an unforced error in the middle of the set, in a really bad game, before regaining his focus.

Unfortunetaly, and despite a few great shots, he’s been a little less consistant in the second set, and against Federer it usually translates in an instant punishment. Zhenya lost his serve twice, and then the match.

Thanks to his really good results of the past couple of months, he is the #6 seed there.

In the first round he will be opposed to qualifier S.STAKHOVSKY (UKR).

The complete main draw is available : here

But before that he will make his debuts in the tournament by playing associated with F.MOSER (GER) in doubles. They will face J.CERRETANI (USA)/D.SKOCH (CZE) in the first round.

The doubles draw is available : here

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J.CERRETANI (USA)/D.SKOCH (CZE) def E.KOROLEV (RUS)/F.MOSER (GER) 7/6(5) 6/3

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S.STAKHOVSKY (UKR) def E.KOROLEV (RUS) 6/4 6/3

Unfortunately Zhenya hasn’t been able to do better in single than he did in doubles ; tiredness got the best of him, he never seemed comfortable during the match, and was far from his usual level. Better luck next week…

The main draw is available : here

In the first round Evgeny will be opposed to last year’s winner, countrymate I.KUNYTSIN.

He also plays in doubles, associated with A.GOLUBEV (KAZ), in the first round which will be played tomorrow (Monday) they will face [4]R.HUTCHINS (GBR)/H.TECAU (ROU).

The complete doubles draw is available : here

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A.GOLUBEV (KAZ)/ E.KOROLEV (RUS) def [4]R.HUTCHINS (GBR)/H.TECAU (ROU) 7/6(4) 2/6 10-8

Next round they will be opposed to R.BOPANNA (IND)/ J.TIPSAREVIC (SER).

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In the first round Zhenya defeated the defending champion, countrymate I.KUNITSYN 7/6(6) 6/3

Although he was a little tensed, he managed to win the important points, and then reach the second round where he will be faced to a big challenge, playing Marat Safin in front of a crowed totally devoted to the latter.

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E.KOROLEV (RUS) def M.SAFIN (RUS) 6/4 7/6(4)

In an electric atmosphere, Zhenya played a very good match, he’s been strong and solid, showing his full power with a lot of impressive winners. Both players reached a very high level of tennis, but Zhenya has overall shown more realism than Marat, even though he missed a couple of shots towards the end surrendering a bit to the excitement of the upcoming victory.

Read Evgeny’s post match interview (first round), watch higlights of the quaterfinal and get the rest of his results, after the jump…

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21.10.09 – Press Conference with Evgeny Korolev

- www.kremlincup.ru -

Q: How did you manage to win? Kunitsyn said that nothing extraordinary happened. You always beat him.

A: It was a tough match today. I really succeed in beating Igor yet. But today there was 2-3 points advantage thus the 1^st set was quite tough. In the 2^nd set I made a break and won his serve. He made a few errors. The match was tense till up to the end. If I lost my concentration somewhere he would have taken the initiative. So it wasn’t an easy match and I’m happy that I won it.

Q: Is it true that you are training in Germany? Tell us please about your coach team.

A: I train at tournaments as I travel a lot. My team is my family, my father trains me. Brother helps me and mother always roots for me. I train in Germany, Moscow, America and everyone I can. There is no special place for trainings.

Q: Who supports you at Kremlin Cup?

A: All my family and friends support me. About 15-20 people.

Q: You were more emotional that Igor today. How did you tune up for the match?

A: It is said that when you play at home there is some pressure. But I don’t feel any pressure. I played well for 2-3 months without any injuries. And I’m happy that I can play and train at home. I enjoy tennis and really adore this kind of sport. I really appreciate that a lot of fans root for me.

Q: Your next opponent is Davydenko or Safin. Will you stay to watch the match?

A: I don’t think so. I’m really tired. The day before yesterday I have been here all day long. I know how they play. I played Marat and Kolya. Thus in any case I would have a tough match. Tomorrow I’m going to play singles and doubles. That’s why I need to retain my energy.

Q: Who will you prefer to play?

A: It doesn’t really matter. Both of them play well. I have no preferences. I know that Marat feels good and plays without any tense. Kolya has just arrived from Shanghai, where he beat Nadal. He is really in a good shape and is very confident. Besides he is the most tough player in ATP. That’s why I will have a tough match anyway and will have to show my best tennis to win. I’ll do my best.

Q: How did the changes in the ATP score system influence your rankings? And the second question: how do you rate the surface and balls?

A: Frankly speaking the surface is really very specific not like at other tournaments. It’s kind of sticky while playing baseline. It took me also 2-3 more days to get used to the balls and surface. I was on the top of my play and showed my best tennis.

As concerns ATP score system changes it’s positive for somebody and negative for others. These changes are targeted to strengthen the 1^st 100. It’s an advantage for those who play challengers because they can play ATP tournaments. These changes don’t matter for me.

Q: What are your plans for the next year? Did you set any goals for the upcoming year?

A: I always set goals. Whenever I set goals something would happen: operations, etc. That’s why I don’t set goals any more. I’m just happy to be on courts.

Q: Is it true that you have said to the journalists that if someone would ask you about your cousin Anna Kurnikova you would leave?

A: It is the last question, isn’t it? I don’t remember that. Maybe I’ll give you her telephone number and you will call her yourself?! If you wish to ask something you’d better call Anna.

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[Q]I.MARCHENKO (UKR) def E.KOROLEV (RUS) 0/6 6/2 6/3

Evgeny played the perfect match… for one set. He was confortable with his shots, had total control over his opponent, and quickly won the first set 6/0.

Was that too easy, too much after his great win against Marat ? Maybe, probably… It seems Zhenya started to think about what he was achieving, and that was enough to disturb his game. Getting into the second set he started to miss a little, Marchenko was returning a bit better, and Zhenya’s tennis slowly desintegrated. His opponent now on the roll, Zhenya hasn’t been able to come back.

Then, after a really short half an hour break, Zhenya was back on court, for his doubles secound round match.

R.BOPANNA (IND)/ J.TIPSAREVIC (SER) def A.GOLUBEV (KAZ)/ E.KOROLEV (RUS) 7/6(1) 7/5

Zhenya is the #3 seed of the tournament, he will face B.PHAU (GER) in the first round.

The complete main draw is available : here

He will also play doubles, associated with D.ISTOMIN (UZB), they will first be opposed to the french pair M.GICQUEL/N.MAHUT.

The doubles draw is available : here

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[3]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def B.PHAU (GER) 6/3 6/2

After a pretty bad start, with 2 double faults, Zhenya broke his opponent to get back to 1/1, he then broke again with a love game to take the lead 3/1, after that the german didn’t score another point on Zhenya’s games, and Evgeny took the set 6/3.

In the second set, just as in the first one, Zhenya got broken right away, but he managed to come back once again, to 2/1 after a very tight game. His serve was very fluctuant along the set, but he managed to break two times, and then ended the match by winning the second set 6/2.

Next, he will face qualifier J.HAEHNEL (FRA) who went through to the second round after his opponent S.BOHLI (SWI) retired at 6/4 2/1.

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E.KOROLEV (RUS)/D.ISTOMIN (UZB) def M.GICQUEL (FRA)/N.MAHUT (FRA) 6/3 5/7 10-8

In the second round they will be opposed to [2]L. FRIEDL (CZE)/D. SKOCH (CZE).

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[3]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def J.HAEHNEL (FRA) 7/6(5) 6/3

In the quaterfinals he will face S. STAKHOVSKY (UKR) who defeated #7 seed F.SERRA.

E.KOROLEV (RUS)/D.ISTOMIN (UZB) def [2]L. FRIEDL (CZE)/D. SKOCH (CZE) 7/5 6/1

And that’s another quaterfinal for Zhenya, he and Istomin will be opposed to the #4 seed, P.MARX (GER)/I.ZELENAY (SVK).

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S. STAKHOVSKY (UKR) def [3]E.KOROLEV (RUS) 6/3 6/4

E.KOROLEV (RUS)/D.ISTOMIN (UZB) def [4]P.MARX (GER)/I.ZELENAY (SVK) 3/6 6/3 12-10

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Zhenya wins the tournament… in doubles !

E.KOROLEV (RUS)/D.ISTOMIN (UZB) def A.FALLA (COL)/T.GABASHVILI (RUS) (4)6/7 7/6(4) 11-9

]]> http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/mons-belgique/feed/ 1 zhenyasupporters http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/bangkok-thailand/ http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/bangkok-thailand/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:37:43 +0000 zhenyasupporters http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/?p=663 ]]> Zhenya left Europe for Asia, where he will play in the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok.

In the first round he will be opposed to frenchman and #7 seed F.SANTORO.

The complete draw is available : here

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E.KOROLEV (RUS) def [7]F.SANTORO (FRA) 4/6 7/6(4) 7/6(7)

Despite being broken right in the beginning, Zhenya played great up until 4/4 breaking back, then at 40/0 his game suddenly desintegrated he got broken again and lost the first set. The second was tight, Zhenya was inconstant but somehow solid on the important points. Poor line judging led the players to trust eachother more than the umpire, and Santoro even went against a decision made, to give a point (that was clearly in and called out) to Evgeny. They ended up playing a tie break, Zhenya started badly but came back and played a great point to get an occasion to win the set that he converted.

He then broke Santoro right in the first game of the third set, but being unlucky with the net twice in a row, he lost his serve in the next game. At 4/4 Zhenya gets two break points 15/40, Santoro saves the first one, on the second one Santoro’s shot is called in although it seems out, Zhenya complains, says the mark is actually visible, but the umpire stands by his call. After the sides change Zhenya scores a love game, then started a never ending game, Zhenya has multiple advantages therefore break points, Santoro saves most of them, then at another 40/A Zhenya’s shot is called out while again it appears to be in, back to deuce, Santoro finally scores his game 6/5 … Zhenya pulls out another love game, which leads to a second tie break  which turned out to be a thriller.

Evgeny takes the first point on Santoro’s serve, stays strong leading 4/1. But unfortunately his left thigh starts cramping and he makes a double fault 4/2. At 5/4 he makes an unforced error which gives two match points to Santoro, Zhenya saves the first one, 6/5 Santoro to serve. With a huge forehand Evgeny is back to 6/6 saving the second match point. 7/6 and third match point for Santoro, Zhenya saves this one too with a good serve. He then takes the lead 8/7 scoring a massive forehand.

One match point and it’s done 9/7 Zhenya defeats Santoro and goes through to the next round where he will be opposed to R.GINEPRI (USA).

He’s been strong and patient, he has raised his level at crucial moments, this is a very good win, against a very tough opponent, which confirms he’s definitely back on the right track.

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Wednesday, aside from the competition, Evgeny took from his free time to share a moment on court with the kids of the PTT Open.

Here is a link to all the pictures taken during the Clinic.

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E.KOROLEV (RUS) def R.GINEPRI (USA) 6/1 6/1

Well, somehow, and in a positive way, there’s actually not much to say about this match. Zhenya played strong, on each and every point. He didn’t give any chance to Ginepri, and the american has been nowhere near Zhenya’s level in the entire match. In 42 minutes Evgeny showed what he is really made of as everything in his game was there and effective.

He is now in quaterfinals, where he will face [2]G.SIMON (FRA) in a real big test match.

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[2]G.SIMON (FRA) def E.KOROLEV (RUS) 4/6 6/3 6/4

With an early break in the first set, Zhenya was confident and his game was flawless, he won the set without any difficulty. He kept playing amazing tennis in the beginning of the second set, so much than an overly frustrated Simon actually ended up shouting at 1/0 “it’s impossible that he never misses like that !” Zhenya kept on rolling, constantly forcing Simon to stay far from his baseline and hitting major winners up to 4/3. But patience payed for Simon when Zhenya started to miss a few shots, which cost him the break 5/3, and then the set as he made another unforced error.

He seemed to be determined not to let the loss of the second set get him down, and started the third by breaking Simon with a beautiful drop shot, 2/0. But the frenchman came back, hitting great winners and Zhenya’s game started to slowly fell apart a little. Down 3/2, and less confident than in the beginning he wasn’t agressive enough to break back, and Simon took the lead 4/2. Zhenya scored a love game to stay in the match 4/3, but Simon hold on to his serve. And despite Zhenya’s efforts at 5/4 (leading 0/30) to try to come back, Simon stayed solid and ended the match 6/4.

Another very good week for Evgeny, another quaterfinals, which unlike the last one he came close to win. He showed great tennis, consistency and mental strentgh ; and on monday he will reach his highest ranking. All a sign of great things to come.

The main draw is available : here

He also paired up at the last minute with countrymate D.SITAK to replace the french team Mahut/Ouanna after Ouanna withdrew because of a back injury.

The doubles draw is available : here

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E.KOROLEV (RUS) def B.BECKER (GER) 6/2 6/3

Zhenya played really strong tennis in this first round. He got an early break in both sets, showed his powerful forehand, his massive serve, made impressive winners and very few unforced errors. He struggled a little with the serve in the end of the second set but as in the entire match, he stayed focused and ended it 6/2 6/3.

He will be opposed today (wednesday) to D.ISTOMIN (UZB).

[2]R.HUTCHINS (GBR)/J.KERR (AUS) def E.KOROLEV (RUS)/D.SITAK (RUS) 4/6 6/0 10-4

In the doubles draw, Zhenya and his partner D.SITAK unfortunately didn’t pass through the first round. They had a really good start against the #2 seeds R.HUTCHINS (GBR)/J.KERR (AUS) winning the first set 4/6, but it didn’t last as the specialist team, apparently very upset by the outcome of the first set, started a long argument both with the russian pair, and the umpire, in the first game of the second set, it completely broke the rythm of the latest and they weren’t able to really get back into the game. They lost the second set 6/0. They played a little better during the super tie break, but Zhenya was obviously tired, and they both seemed to have lost motivation, they lost it 10-4.

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E.KOROLEV (RUS) def D.ISTOMIN (UZB) 3/6 7/5 7/6(2)

On friday, he will face [2]P.KOHLSCHREIBER (GER) in quaterfinals.

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[2]P.KOHLSCHREIBER (GER) def E.KOROLEV (RUS) 6/1 6/3

]]> http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/metz-france/feed/ 0 zhenyasupporters http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/szczecin-poland/ http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/szczecin-poland/#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:58:10 +0000 zhenyasupporters http://zhenyasupporters.wordpress.com/?p=639 ]]> Next week, Zhenya will play the Pekao Open in Szczecin.

He will be the #4 seed of this clay court tournament, and be opposed to [Q]M.KOWALCZYK (POL) in the first round.

The complete main draw is available : here

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[4]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def [Q]M.KOWALCZYK (POL) 6/4 6/1

He will next be playing G.RUFIN (FRA).

On related news it seems Zhenya might have caught a cold. Although it’s not certain, let’s hope that if it is actually the case it won’t affect his performance too much tomorrow.

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[4]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def G.RUFIN (FRA) 7/5 6/2

Next round he’ll be opposed to Y.SCHUKIN (KAZ) who defeated the #6 seed spaniard Alberto MARTIN.

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[4]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def Y.SCHUKIN (KAZ) 6/3 6/3

Zhenya won his ticket to the semifinals by playing a pretty solid match, he will be opposed to [1]A.MONTANES (ESP).

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[4]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def [1]A.MONTANES (ESP) 4/6 6/3 6/2

In the final Zhenya will play frenchman F.SERRA, the #2 seed of the tournament.

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[4]E.KOROLEV (RUS) def [2]F.SERRA (FRA) 6/4 6/3

ZHENYA WINS SZCZECIN !!!