Mikhail Kukushkin lost 6-1, 6-2 to Stefanos Tsitsipas on Wednesday in Almaty, and it was the last match of his career. He is 38, was world No. 39 at his best according to Tennis TV, won a title in St Petersburg in 2010 and reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam twice. And above all, a line I find technically perfect: 1-0 against Jannik Sinner. One meeting, in 2019, one win.
“I’m happy to still lead 1-0 in our head-to-head! It’s a nice statistic for me,” he said. I understand that lad better than his coach does.
Because I have a statistic too. In my folder, page three, in blue biro: one win against a C15.2 (a club-level ranking). One meeting. She never asked to play again, and I never chased her. Call it career management. The record stays at 1-0, it will stay at 1-0, and nobody can do anything about it, not even the AFT (the French-speaking tennis federation) in January.
Kukushkin also says, in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, that Sinner “was very young, but he was already playing extremely well. You could see he had something special.” That’s exactly what I say about my C15.2. She had something. Court 4 and its neon light, that Sunday, did the rest.
The 6-1, 6-2 against Tsitsipas, I’m not commenting on. A last match is a special context. The emotion, the family in the stands, the strings that surely weren’t redone for a single match. I’m not saying it’s the strings. I’m saying I’ve seen it before.
Me, in Kitzbühel, in ’92, I’m leading my head-to-head against a future top 10 too. Well, we didn’t finish the match, but the spirit was there.
Afterwards, Tsitsipas asked him for a keepsake, according to Tennis TV. My C15.2 left without saying goodbye. Two practice sessions away, mind you, it’s the same respect.
It’s true, we checked: Tennis Actu.
