First week in the new season is very successful for foreign players of our Slovakian coaches. Illya Marchenko (28) is a good example. With residence in Bratislava, preparing under the supervision of Tibor Toth (47), Marchenko made fantastic result in Doha, at ATP Qatar ExxonMobil Open, beating World Number 7, David Ferrer (33) in the first round. “Ilya was very well prepared for the match with Ferrer. He knew exactly what to expect from David. He did everything I have asked him to do,” said Toth after the match

Illya Marchenko trains in Slovakia, in LOVE 4 Tennis Academy for a year now. More about his Slovakian spell and arrival from Doneck, you can read in the latest edition of Tennis Arena 11-12/2015.

Eliminated Ferrer’ s forehand

Precious win for Illya Marchenko was extremely difficult to achieve. Ferrer was 1-5 down in tie break in first set, still showed his usual fighting spirit to take the first set. However next two sets were in favour of the Ukrainian player – 6-3, 6-2. “Illya was the initiative player, had very good length of his strokes, and very accurate. He did not allow Ferrer to use his strong forehand. Ilya was serving well and had several good moments on the net. It was important he did give up after losing the first set. He kept playing at very high level and slowly completely eliminated Ferrer’ s resistance,” said Toth for www.tennis.arena.cz

Illya Marchenko used to be No. 67 in ATP rankings in 2010, in October 2015 under Toth he reached No. 79 spot in the ranking, at the moment he is 94th. Until now he never won against TOP 10 player. “Of course such a win is always very precious. Against Ferrer, even more, because he is extremely difficult opponent to beat, because he fights until the very end, like a bulldog,” thinks Slovakian coach.

Illya Marchenko was successful also in the second round in Doha, beating Russian Teymuraz Gabashvilli 6:4, 6:2. In quarterfinal he eliminated Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, only to fell short in the semi-final against Rafael Nadal. “Match against Gabashvilli was nervous at the beginning, I witnessed some fatigue from the first round. However as the match went on, Ilya got into the tempo and with his accurate and active game dominated on the court. I am happy he proved his uprising form, because what often happens, that players after making a great result, they fail to deliver the performance in the next round,“ explains Toth.

Preseason was not ideal, camp in Tatras helped

Tibor Toth does not want to make any conclusions from the preseason camp, because conditions for player indoors and outdoors make a big difference. “It is always a big difference to prepare the player at home indoors and then he plays outdoors, in completely different conditions. Most important is how can player adapt himself. We achieved it, luckily it is not so hot in Doha now, as it is in Australia or in Chennai. We did not have ideal preseason, there was little time, but we did some good things and most importantly preseason training camp in High Tatras helped him a lot,” concluded Toth.

Marchenko spends most time in Bratislava, in LOVE 4 tennis Academy, where he is a member. He plays there with ATP players, including Mecir, Ignatik, Horansky. Also uses sparings from NTC Bratislava. “Very good conditions are also part of his recent success. But mostly it is about himself together with Tibor Toth. They are both professionals, who use our potential up to 200% and they are good examples of hard work for rest of our guys. We are all big fans of them. If Ilya stays fit, he can go all the way into the TOP 20. He is the first choice in our academy and after the Australian Open we will look further to make our co-operation more effective for both sides,”commented head coach of L4T Erik Csarnakovics.