Drimal
Nov 15th, 2004, 09:26 AM
There are so many good Russian players in 2004 and they have dominated the season for sure. Anastasia Myskina won over Elena Dementieva the first Russain Grand Slam title, Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon and Svetlana Kuznetsova the US Open over Elena Dementieva.
There were 14 Russian titles this year! Sharapova (4), Myskina (3), Kuznetsova (3), Dementieva (1), Zvonareva (1), Bovina (1) and Likhovtseva (1).
Now I want to make an analysis of the ranking improvement of the 8 best Russian players from 2000 to 2004. It is often said that suddenly there were so many good players of Russia. But where does they come from?
Year-end rankings 2004 (*) 2003 2002 2001 2000
Anastasia Myskina 3 ; 7 ; 11 ; 59 ; 58
Svetlana Kuznetsova 4 ; 35 ; 43 ; 266 ; 785
Elena Dementieva 5 ; 8 ; 19 ; 15 ; 11
Maria Sharapova 6 ; 32 ; 188
Vera Zvonareva 11 ; 13 ; 45 ; 372 ; 349
Nadia Petrova 12 ; 12 ; 112 ; 39 ; 60
Elena Bovina 15 ; 21 ; 26 ; 49 ; 133
Elena Likhovtseva 24 ; 37 ; 42 ; 36 ; 21
(*) the year 2004 is not yet finished / all year-end rankings
It is really impressive; only Dementieva and Likhovtseva were present in the Top 25 at the end of 2000. Kuznetsova, Zvonareva and Bovina were nobodies, Myskina and Petrova with ranking 58 and 60 just average Top Ten players and Sharapova was starting at the Tour in 2002.
If we compare the year 2004 and 2003 we see that every of these eight players have improved their rankings. Kuznetsova make a remarkable jump from 35 to 4 just as Sharapova from 32 to 6.
There were 14 Russian titles this year! Sharapova (4), Myskina (3), Kuznetsova (3), Dementieva (1), Zvonareva (1), Bovina (1) and Likhovtseva (1).
Now I want to make an analysis of the ranking improvement of the 8 best Russian players from 2000 to 2004. It is often said that suddenly there were so many good players of Russia. But where does they come from?
Year-end rankings 2004 (*) 2003 2002 2001 2000
Anastasia Myskina 3 ; 7 ; 11 ; 59 ; 58
Svetlana Kuznetsova 4 ; 35 ; 43 ; 266 ; 785
Elena Dementieva 5 ; 8 ; 19 ; 15 ; 11
Maria Sharapova 6 ; 32 ; 188
Vera Zvonareva 11 ; 13 ; 45 ; 372 ; 349
Nadia Petrova 12 ; 12 ; 112 ; 39 ; 60
Elena Bovina 15 ; 21 ; 26 ; 49 ; 133
Elena Likhovtseva 24 ; 37 ; 42 ; 36 ; 21
(*) the year 2004 is not yet finished / all year-end rankings
It is really impressive; only Dementieva and Likhovtseva were present in the Top 25 at the end of 2000. Kuznetsova, Zvonareva and Bovina were nobodies, Myskina and Petrova with ranking 58 and 60 just average Top Ten players and Sharapova was starting at the Tour in 2002.
If we compare the year 2004 and 2003 we see that every of these eight players have improved their rankings. Kuznetsova make a remarkable jump from 35 to 4 just as Sharapova from 32 to 6.