I spent a good portion of last week on tennis courts on major Slovak tennis events. The Slovak Open is often labeled as small Grand Slam, since both men and women play their tournament on the same week and in the same facility – The National Tennis Center. In 2007 the men’s tournament in Bratislava won the award for best hosted event on ATP Challenger series circuit. We Slovaks were delighted to see our own Lukas Lacko to win both singles and doubles competition. Due to the bad economy, the women’s ITF series event has lower prize money and it’s not as attractive for top players as it used to be, but the players who entered still provided some decent matches. The first seeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine claimed the title.

Photos from singles semifinals and doubles finals (Saturday): http://hutera.blog.sme.sk/c/281076/Slovak-Open-2011-Sobota.html
Photos from singles finals (Sunday): http://hutera.blog.sme.sk/c/281167/Slovak-Open-2011-Finale.html

The biggest tennis event of the season was scheduled on monday. The fourth annual Tennis Classic had the most special guest – current World no. 1 (as of November 21st) of women’s singles ranking – Caroline Wozniacki, who played a singles match against the Slovak no. 1 Dominika Cibulkova. With no points at stake, both players concentrated on providing as much fun and laughter as possible. Especially Caroline was a riot! Girls were later joined by the famous tennis entertainers Henri Leconte and Mansour Bahrami for a crazy mixed doubles match.

Photos from Tennis Classic 2011: http://hutera.blog.sme.sk/c/281351/Tennis-Classic-2011.html

The last day of Davis Cup tie often promises dramatic, close matches. The tie between Slovakia an Ukraine was no exception. The duel of team leaders Martin Klizan of Slovakia and Sergij Stakhovsky of Ukraine provided close games with many nerve-wrecking points. The key moments came in the third set. Martin Klizan managed to come back to what appeared to be a lost third set – he was losing 2:5 in a tie-break and still gained the set, eventually the whole match and deciding thid point for team Slovakia. The final score was 6:4, 3:6, 7:6, 6:2. In the last singles game, Pavol Cervenak of team Slovakia defeated Artem Smirnov in straight sets. Photos from the last day of Davis Cup tie on my blog: http://hutera.blog.sme.sk/c/275806/Davis-Cup-SlovenskoUkrajina-Nedela.html

The 2011 Davis Cup 1st Europe/Africa group play offs brought together teams Slovakia and Ukraine. Both teams lost their previous Davis Cup ties and must win this play off to stay in “the third league” of the most prestigious mens tennis competition. The losing team will descend into 2nd Europe/Africa group. After the first two matches the score is tied 1:1. In the first match Martin Klizan of Team Slovakia defeated Illya Marchenko in four sets 6:7, 6:3, 6:1, 6:3 and in second match Sergiy Sakhovsky of Team Ukraine defeated Pavol Cervenak in three sets 7:5, 6:2, 6:1. My photographs from day one can be found on my blog: http://hutera.blog.sme.sk/c/275668/Davis-Cup-SlovenskoUkrajina-Piatok.html