Doubles ghost: Kudermetova and Mertens reached the semifinals of the Final tournament

Russians Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider lost their chances to reach the semi-finals of the doubles at the Final tournament in Riyadh. The silver medalists of the OI-2024 and the winners of the "one thousandth" in Miami could not put the squeeze on the weakest of their rivals on the supertybreak — Hungarian Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani from Brazil. But the champions of the Final Tournament of 2022, Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens, are advancing to the semifinals. In the final match to get out of the group, they were able to beat the first seeded Sara Errani and Yasmin Paolini in two sets. The Russian woman left the group for the second year in a row at the Final. In 2024, she was paired with Haojing Zhan.

Another success

Veronika Kudermetova and Belgian Elise Mertens confidently defeated Italians Sara Errani and Yasmin Paolini. (6:3, 6:3), who were considered favorites of the Final. The meeting lasted 1 hour and 21 minutes. Kudermetova and Mertens served straight three times, made one double fault and converted five break points out of 11. Their opponents had no aces, three double faults and two break points out of six. The Russian-Belgian duo scored their second victory in the group stage and advanced to the semifinals.

Kudermetova and Mertens have already won the Final in Fort Worth in 2022. After the victory in the USA, the Russian-Belgian duo suddenly broke up. Veronica played in an alliance with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Lyudmila Samsonova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Zhan Haoqing. With the latter in 2024, they qualified for the Final, losing in the semifinals to Townsend and Sinyakova. This year, Kudermetova performed in pairs with Anastasia Potapova, Ena Sibahara and the same Zhan Haoqing. It didn't work out with the representative of Taiwan this time.

The pair were eliminated in the first or second round, so Kudermetova paired up with Mertens again in Madrid for the first time since 2022. It worked. In the Spanish capital, they reached the final, and a week later they played in the decisive match of the Rome Masters. They failed to win these tournaments, but Wimbledon won less than two months later. At the US Open, the Russian-Belgian duo reached the semifinals, so their stability at major tournaments is impressive.

The current Final tournament is proof of that. Having lost in the first match to Xie Shuwei and Elena Ostapenko, Kudermetova and Mertens initially turned out to be stronger than Eija Muhammad and Demi Schurs in a difficult three-set match, and on Wednesday, November 5, they knocked out the first "seeds".

To add and improve

But Mirra Andreeva and Diana Schneider did not have a successful tournament. Two defeats in two matches deprived them of the opportunity to qualify for the semifinals. Thus, the year of Myrrh, which began very optimistically and was marked by three thousandth titles (two singles and one doubles), ends with a real black streak. Five consecutive defeats in duets and a series of three failures in individual competitions. The loss of an individual ticket to the Final tournament due to a mistake by the coaching staff and the strange omission of the tournament in Tokyo. And now, apparently, the disease occurred during the competition in Riyadh. In any case, after the conclusion of the doubles match of the second round, Andreeva refused to shake hands with her rivals and the judge, but not in a confrontational style, but warning that she was ill and possibly contagious. Earlier, American tennis player Madison Keys did the same thing with reference to the virus after the match with Amanda Anisimova.

Keys, who lost all playoff chances after two rounds, eventually decided not to aggravate her illness and withdrew from the final match against Elena Rybakina. In this case, the first alternate, Myrrh, should have taken Madison's place. However, she did not enter the court against the background of the virus, giving the opportunity to speak in Riyadh to the second reserve Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Now it is possible to remove Andreeva from the final doubles match, which does not solve anything. It is unlikely that such a turnaround will please Diana Schneider, although the main MiDi event in Saudi Arabia has already been completed — they made their debut as the youngest pair at the Final tournament. And since the duo hasn't had any results for a long time (after Roland Garros, the score of wins and losses is 5-8), it's time to think about whether it's worth continuing cooperation next season.

From Schneider's point of view, it probably makes sense. Diana has a better career as a couple, and having a strong and media—minded loner as a partner is a big plus. In any case, it's not easy to find an equivalent replacement.

"It's a pity that Mirra and Diana have such a result," Olympic doubles champion Elena Vesnina said in a conversation with Izvestia. — But this is their first doubles Final tournament. This is a great experience, they still need to learn, practice and improve. They are very young, and it can be said that their couple is not so experienced. It takes time to understand the philosophy of the doubles game even more. They need this experience to become high-level players. Getting to the Final Tournament itself is a cool achievement, but we need to keep adding and improving.

On Thursday, November 6, Andreeva and Schneider are scheduled to play the final match of the tournament, against Czech Katerina Sinyakova and American Taylor Townsend.