THE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
In 2014, Kudermetova began full-time activity on the ITF circuit, following the usual process required to break into professional tennis. The 15 matches played in previous years had earned her a starting ranking of 671. As mentioned, things didn’t turn out to be easy. Her first year was probably the only one when she had the type of growth that is expected of a future Top 50 player: she finished 2014 at the 343rd spot, gaining over 300 positions. But then the struggles began: N.400 in 2015, N.210 in 2016 and N.257 at the end of 2017, aged 20. Three years to go from 343 to 257: not exactly a triumphant path. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this phase is the call-up to play the Fed Cup in February of 2014: still 16, she faced a Major champion like Sam Stosur (then 16th in the world) in a tie against Australia in Hobart, losing 6-4 6-0. As she had told her father in Vienna, she wanted to play for Russia, and she had managed to do so. However, if we analyze her call-up from a more general perspective, we have the demonstration of the difficulties of the Russian movement: without any financial inducement to play in the Fed Cup, the best players pulled out of the trip to Tasmania, forcing captain Anastasia Myskina to rely on back-up players.
As far as her professional activity is concerned, Sergei Demekhine has been her coach since 2013. He made a name for himself when he became Zvonareva’s coach at a very young age, and it was during this time that Zvonareva reached her best ranking as N.2 in the world thanks to the finals reached at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2010. But Kudermetova didn’t have the same experience as Zvonareva, and technical improvement takes time. In the meantime, however, the bond with Demekhine strengthened and transformed, so much so that in 2018 the two would marry.
Always looking for sponsors, after a bad experience with IMG (“Apart from providing me with clothing and free rackets, they did practically nothing,” she commented), in 2017 she became a member of “Token Stars”, an online platform created to finance promising young athletes – it would be interesting to find out whether these initiatives are effective or not.
In 2018, she finally began to break out of the rut she’d gotten into: a 30-22 at the ITF level finally allowed her to climb up to N.116, just out of direct entry to the Slams. In that season, she also qualified for the coveted Premier event in Stuttgart, certainly the most important WTA tournament she has tried to enter till then. While in Germany, Veronika turned 21, and beat Hsieh, Lepchenko and Suarez Navarro before losing to Pliskova – all quality players.
Perhaps this result also contributed to her making a brave decision: in 2019, she gave up ITF events to dedicate herself only to WTA tournaments. Of course, given her ranking, it meant having to go through the qualies every time, with the risk of collecting very little in terms of points and prize money. However, 2019 turned out to be an extraordinarily fruitful year: it is as if Veronika discovered she was almost more suited to the WTA level than the ITF one. She began by qualifying for the Shenzhen International (where she lost in the quarterfinals to Zvonareva), and then also for the Australian Open and St. Petersburg. She failed to enter the Indian Wells draw but made up for it by winning the WTA 125k in Guadalajara.
Having leapt to a higher plateau, she began to hold her own against more competitive opposition. On the grass of Rosmalen, she beat the defending champion Kontaveit as well as Bencic. By the end of the year, she had reached three semi-finals and six quarterfinals. The 48 overall victories allowed her to end the season at N.41 in the rankings, changing her career prospects for good. It is thus a pity that in 2020 she could not compete with a normal calendar (in particular, the grass season was cancelled altogether), which would have allowed to rise even more.
To date, Kudermetova has not won a WTA tournament yet, but she boasts a remarkable 4-5 record against Top 10 opposition (two wins against Pliskova and Svitolina, one against Bencic). Her Grand Slams chops still remain to be tested, though: in the seven main draws she has faced so far, her best result is a third round exit at the 2019 French Open, while she has always lost in the first round in the two hardcourt Majors.
On page 4, Kudermetova’s playing style
