Russian tennis players Narat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to take revanche on first day of Davis Cup finals

On the first day of Russia vs. France Davis Cup finals, Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov will try to take revanche for their defeats from Paul-Henry Mathieu and Sebastian Grosjean. Last games of Russian versus French tennis players resulted in defeats of Russians.

Only once Safin played against the rising star of the world tennis Mathieu. It happened this year at the Moscow tournament "Kremlin Cup". On October 5th, 2002, Safin lost in semi-finals to the 19-year-old French tennis player 6:7/3:7/, 6:4, 5:7. Back then, Mathieu became the tournament winner after defeating Dutch Sjeng Schalken in the finals. The victory in Moscow was the first victory for the French player in the course of his relatively short professional career.

The players of the other game - Grosjean and Kafelnikov - have already met on tennis courts five times, and three times Kafelnikov was the one to win. However, last time they met on the sidelines of finals of the "Masters" Tournament in Sidney, Australia, the French player defeated Kafelnikov /6:4, 6:2/.

Russia vs. France finals of the "Davis Cup" will start on Friday with the Mathieu-Safin game. After them, Grosjean and Kafelnikov will hit the court of the Bercy Sports Hall in Paris.