Sports journalists from Moscow and St. Petersburg celebrated their professional holidays with a tennis tournament

Participants of the tournament are representatives of the main mass media in Russia, including Channel One, Match-TV, Kommersant and others. A total of 14 journalists took part in the tournament, divided into pairs.

From Athletistic, the most active part was taken by the general director and editor-in-chief Kirill Storchak, who acted in tandem with Sergei Podushkin (Sport-Express), while both represented St. Petersburg.

The participation of Leonid Yakubovich, the permanent host of the Field of Miracles program, who is a big fan of tennis, added great charm to the tournament – he joined forces with Petr Spektor, a sports commentator from the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Pictured from left to right: Pyotr Spektor (MK), Leonid Yakubovich (Channel One), Kirill Storchak (Athletistic), Sergey Podushkin (Sport Express)

All tournament participants were divided into two groups, in each of which a round robin was held.

In the first group, the pair from St. Petersburg was the clear favorite – Podushkin and Storchak did not come under much pressure from the pair Yakubovich / Spector (6:0) and representatives of Match-TV Ekaterina Soldatenkova and Alexander Burdin (6:0) . The head-to-head duel between the latter ended in victory for the journalists with “Match-TV” with the score 6:3. Thus, representatives of the main sports television channel of the country took second place, having received the right to participate in the semi-finals.

There were four couples in the second group, two of whom also represented the Match-TV channel. And here the struggle to reach the semi-finals was more serious, since three couples at once had a chance to reach the semi-finals. The couple Evgeny Fedyakov (Kommersant) / Alexander Anoshin (Bolshe Internet channel), who finally won the first place in the group, played the most difficult match with a couple Dmitry Dyatlov / Alexander Burdin (Match-TV) – 6: 4 Other matches Anoshin and Fedyakov won with the same score 6:1 – this is how another Match-TV pair Kirill Zemskov / Alexander Loginov, as well as Andrey Simonenko (RIA Novosti) and Natalya Maryanchik (Sports. ru) were beaten. at a face-to-face meeting of representatives of “Match-TV” – here a pair of Zemskov / Loginov was stronger, beating their rivals with a score of 6:2.

In the semifinals, those who took first place in their group did not encounter serious difficulties: the pair of St. Petersburg Podushkin / Storchak dominated the pair Zemskov / Loginov (6: 2), and Anoshin and Fedyakov haven’t given a single match to the Lukashov/Soldatenkov pair at all.

The final, which was attended by many spectators, including prominent Russian tennis players Anastasia Myskina and Igor Kunitsyn, turned out to be extremely tense. He went to two sets won with a decisive point in the match with a score of 40:40. In the event that two sets did not reveal the winner, a tie-break would be played up to 10 points won.

The couple from St. Petersburg immediately took the initiative and led with the score 4:1 – here, first of all, the long-term teamwork of Sergei Podushkin and Kirill Storchak, who repeatedly won occasions of journalistic tournaments in couple, affected here. It should be noted that Podushkin, being a well-known sports journalist, is also an almost invincible and long-term champion of the St. Petersburg tennis club “Kreida”. Storchak, on the other hand, is also a solid solo player, positioned between the amateur levels of Challenger and Masters in strength.

However, at this time, Alexander Anoshin, a very strong amateur with a good tennis background, started moving around the court more, blocking most of the court. After that, the initiative began to gradually shift to the Moscow pair, they managed to win three games in a row and the score was tied. The Petersburgers managed to win the eleventh game, but after that the Muscovites again won three games mainly due to Anochine’s very competent and well-balanced shots in the “corridors” of the field involved in the doubles match. Evgeny Fedyakov also played well at the net on several occasions, not losing his focus throughout the game.

In the second set, from the start, the Muscovite couple dominated, who immediately took the initiative, winning two games. However, in the middle of the set, Podushkin and Storchak managed to find an antidote to Anochine’s hyperactive game, and with the score 2:4, the Petersburgers won three games in a row, taking a lead . However, again there was a turn in the game, the Muscovites started to play with more precision and the Petersburgers missed several good chances to close the set in their favor. So, Podushkin and Storchak again, as in the first set, lost three decisive matches in a row, winning 5: 4 in the set. At the very end of the game, Fedyakov and Anoshin played three games –bolatwo of which Storchak and Podushkin recovered, but then couldn’t resist a good net play from Alexander Anoshin.

As a result, the second set also ended at 7: 5, and the Moscow pair Alexander Anoshin – Evgeny Fedyakov became the winner of the epic confrontation and the entire tournament. Upset by the insulting defeat, Kirill Storchak and Sergey Podushkin received cups for second place. However, during price discounts and post game At the gala dinner, the organizers of the tournament, among them the head coach of the Russian national team Igor Kunitsyn, the president of the Federation of sports journalists Dmitry Tugarin, the vice-president of the Russian Tennis Federation Yakov Shatkhin spoke enthusiastic words to the participants, noting that the final of the tournament will go down in history forever.

Third place was taken by Kirill Zemskov and Alexander Loginov, who beat Dmitry Lukashov and Ekaterina Soldatenkova.

Pictured from left to right: Sergey Podushkin (SE), Kirill Storchak (Athletistic), Yakov Shatkhin (FTR), Evgeny Fedyakov (Kommersant), Alexander Anoshin (More!), Dmitry Tugarin (FSJ), Kirill Zemskov and Alexander Loginov (“Match-TV”), Igor Kunitsyn (FTR)

Athletistic thanks the Russian Tennis Federation and the Federation of Sports Journalists for the excellent organization of an important and necessary sports event, which helps to strengthen friendly contacts between media representatives and sports federations.