Oli Dickson Jefford
Anastasia Myskina is not someone known too well outside of tennis, but her Roland Garros win 20 years ago is one of the most important Grand Slam victories in modern history.
Twenty years on from her triumph on June 5th, 2004, we look at how Myskina’s win was a watershed moment for women’s tennis.
Slim pickings for Russian WTA stars
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a boom in Russian tennis, with Yevgeny Kafelnikov the first Russian to win a singles major at the 1996 French Open, later winning the 1999 Australian Open and 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Kafelnikov would reach world No 1 on the ATP Tour, as did Marat Safin, who won the first of his two Grand Slams at the US Open in 2000.
Elena Dementieva’s silver medal in Sydney was also significant, arguably the biggest achievement by a Russian woman since Olga Morozova reached the 1974 Roland Garros and Wimbledon finals.
But in the women’s game, Russia did not make any real significant Slam breakthroughs in the early 2000s, with America largely still dominating.
That all changed in 2004.
Myskina spearheads Russian charge
By the 2004 French Open, there was a Russian surge in the women’s game, with a quarter of the 32 seeded players from the nation – including five seeds inside the top 11.
The national No 1 was Myskina, the sixth seed in Paris, but not a player considered a title contender.
After beating 11th seed and compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova in round four, the 23-year-old was one of three Russian women in the last eight, alongside ninth seed Dementieva, and 18th seed Maria Sharapova.
Sharapova, then only 17, fell to Paola Suarez – but Myskina dispatched Venus Williams in straight sets to reach the last four, as Dementieva picked up a similarly emphatic win over Amelie Mauresmo.
When Myskina then beat Jennifer Capriati, and Dementieva defeated Suarez, history was ensured; a Russian woman would win a major singles title.
By and large, the final was not a memorable one.
Crippled by nerves, Dementieva made over 50 unforced errors, and a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 win for Myskina saw her lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.
It was her only Slam final and her career would end prematurely due to a back injury in 2007, but she proved to be a significant trailblazer in the long run.
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Dominance
Russia didn’t have to wait long for a second female Slam winner, or a third.
Weeks after Myskina’s moment, Sharapova claimed a memorable Wimbledon victory, winning her first Slam as a 17-year-old.
That was quickly followed by a maiden Slam win for Kuznetsova, who was only 19 when she beat Dementieva in the US Open final at the end of that summer.
Having gone from no female Slam champions to three in the space of a few months, the nation was established as a huge force, and that continued to be the case for the next decade.
Sharapova rose to world No 1 for the first time in 2005 and ultimately won five Grand Slam titles, becoming one of the most prominent female sports stars in history.
Kuznetsova went on to win the 2009 French Open, defeating compatriot Dinara Safina in the final, with Safina herself a former world No 1 and three-time Slam runner-up.
In the finest moment of her career, Dementieva downed Safina for Olympic gold in Beijing, and the podium was a clean sweep after Vera Zvonareva triumphed the bronze medal match.
Zvonareva would peak at world No 2 after consecutive Wimbledon and US Open finals in 2010, while Nadia Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze also helped cement Russia’s place as a tennis superpower.
Ongoing controversy
Russian women’s tennis hasn’t quite reached those heights recently, but there has still been success.
The nation won the Billie Jean King Cup in 2021, with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova reaching the French Open final that same year.
Current Russian No 1 Daria Kasatkina has been as high as world No 8, while Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina won three doubles Slams and Olympic gold in Rio.
However, the presence of Russian players on tour has attracted controversy recently.
In the mid-2010s, the discovery of state-sponsored doping within Russia drew universal condemnation, with the nation banned from several sports, notably athletics and swimming – but a ban in tennis never looked likely.
Players technically competed for the ‘Russian Tennis Federation’ in team events and championships, but the presence of players at the Olympics raised one or two eyebrows outside of tennis, considering actions elsewhere.
Perceptions were certainly not also helped by Sharapova being dragged into one of the highest-profile doping scandals of all time, the star banned for 15 months after testing positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open.
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Now, it is impossible to ignore the controversy surrounding the presence of Russian players amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Most sports that hadn’t already banned Russian athletes due to various doping scandals enforced a suspension after the invasion in February 2022 – but not tennis.
Players such as Kasatkina and Pavlyuchenkova, among countless others across the WTA and ATP, do not compete for Russia – they technically compete as neutral athletes.
But no one forgets where these players are from, not least Ukrainian stars such as Elina Svitolina – who has led calls for the nation to be fully banned.
The matter comes to a head on the WTA, where several Russian and Ukrainian players sit towards the top of the game, and matches between these players occur more often than the sport’s leadership would like.
With stars like Mirra Andreeva emerging, Russian women’s tennis is not going anywhere soon.
The question is, how will their continued presence in the women’s game be perceived, and will any future major success be celebrated considering the disdain of some?
