French Open 2020: five strings broke! Zavatska has to continue playing with coach's stick
What crazy and bitter scenes with Katarina Zavatska : The Ukrainian only played the second match in a Grand Slam main field at the French Open - and in the end she ran out of clubs.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Sep 29, 2020, 10:36 am
Everything had started so promisingly for Katarina Zavatska: Number 112 in the WTA world rankings got off to a dream start against Kiki Bertens (number 8 in the world!) And had hopes of her first victory in a Grand Slam tournament. Especially since Bertens hadn't come to Paris in top shape. With 6: 2 Zavatska had won the first round against Bertens, which then made the set equalization.
But then the thread broke at Zavatska, and that in both senses of the word. Zavatska tore the clubs one by one. With a score of 0: 1 and an advantage for the 20-year-old, it made "ratchet", and when Zavatska was at her bench, she slowly became aware of the disaster. Zavatska was reluctant to take a replacement racket, had she also found a broken string here? Apparently, just minutes later this club was through, 0: 2. Four clubs had meanwhile torn her, which she then gave to string. How long would that take?
For too long apparently: Zavatska started with her last remaining healthy bat, and at 0: 3 ..? You will guess - exactly, bat number 5 also tore.
zavatskaschlaeger
Zavatska: All thugs gone - the coach has to help
To understand: Compared to earlier times, rackets hardly tear nowadays, most players have drawn more rigid polyester strings and change them at the same time (especially in the men's area) when there are new balls (to anticipate the loss of tension). Zavatska seemed to be playing a hybrid string, lengthways gut, crossways poly - and the latter seemed to have damaged the soft main strings (in the rainy and humid temperatures) too badly.
After the last racket from Zavatska was through, there was only one rescue left: a racket from her coach. The problem: Zavatska plays a model from the "Yonex VCore Pro" series, her coach's racket was a "Babolat Pure Drive" - it couldn't be more different.
The result in the end: a 0: 6 in the third round - and bitter tears for Zavatska.
Memories of Goran Ivanisevic
A consolation for Zavatska: It can always get worse. As with Goran Ivanisevic . The Croat, feared as "master of the aces" as much as as a racket destroyer, had let out so much anger on his work equipment at a tournament in Brighton in 2000 that he had to give up his match because he had no tennis racket left.