U.S. vs WORLD

BusinessWeek has introduced its Power 100—their ranking of the most influential people in the world of sports. Only two tennis players were able to crack the list—Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. The 12-time Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer ranks 30^th and the Russian tennis star Sharapova is No . 73 A quick glance of the BusinessWeek’s list shows that this is yet another US-centric Most-Something-of-the-World-type list (examples are many: the most beautiful, the most powerful, the most… the best…of the WORLD). Needless to say, that the criticism is pouring in from the sports fans around the world. One of the readers notes:

As usual, we are presented with an American-centric list that in no way reflects the reality of power in the world of sports. Any list of the 100 most powerful figures in sports in which the only soccer representative, Sepp Blatter, is far lower than a whole bunch of chairpersons of sports that are completely irrelevant outside the States, has no value. Ask anyone in the world outside the US who Ronaldinho is and they will tell you. Ask them who Peyton Manning is, and they’ll know too… if they are American expats.”

Why not call it the most powerful figures in US sports and save them the criticism? Why all these type of lists always have to have the word “World” in them?

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Congratulations to Portland, Oregon–one of the greenest, cleanest, and most progressive cities in the U.S. The United States will host Russia in the Davis Cup final in December in Portland, Oregon, the US Tennis Association announced Wednesday. Portland’s Memorial Coliseum was selected as the site for the final, which will be held November 30-December 2.

I have lived in Oregon for a couple of years. The place is absolutely beautiful.

Go Portland!!!
Davis Cup

This time it looks very serious. According to Russia’s tennis team captain, Shamil Tarpischev, Maria Sharapova is planning to play for Russia in 2008 Fed Cup. In an interview with dni.ru, he said:

“When Maria was here for the Fed Cup final, I had a discussion with her, her father, and her manager about Masha’s intentions to play for Russia in 2008. All of them are very positive about it. Sharapova has always wanted to play for our team, however the circumstances haven’t allowed her to do it yet. She is so serious about it that they are considering rescheduling her 2008 tour calendar. However, there are factors that we cannot control. For example, the first match with the Israeli team will be right after the Australian Open. Nobody knows in what condition Maria or any other female player of our team will be.”

Citing the current rules, Tarpischev noted that this time around Sharapova doesn’t have the luxury to pull out of the Fed Cup, if she really wants to participate in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Maria Sharapova is a huge international star and… a marketing machine. By winning an Olympic medal she will become even more popular in Russia and around the world. In many parts of the world, the Olympic medal remains the most prestigious achievement for an athlete.

While I was oversees, I had seen so many Sharapova ads that I had never seen them before in the U.S. market. If Maria plays for Russia in 2008, it would be a nice PR, marketing and professional career move.

It seems Maria understands it pretty well. In her online diary she says:

“Tennis is such an individual sport and you forget how great it is to be a ‘team-mate’ for a change. The girls did an amazing job of fighting it out from behind….nothing like a true Russian character! When Sveta [Kuznetsova] asked me to join them for their flag run around, it was the best moment I had this year on a tennis court. All of us represent our country on a daily basis, but representing it in a team environment, in front of a home crowd, is a completely different feeling…pretty difficult to describe…”

(Sources: dni.ru, onthebaseline.com, mariasharapova.com)
Maria Sharapova

 Well, apparently Novak Djokovic is not only good at playing tennis in an empty swimming pool.

There have been many media reports about how Novak Djokovic, world No. 3 tennis player, along with his childhood friend Ana Ivanovic, currently ranked No 6, practiced in an empty swimming pool while growing up in Belgrad. A sports club official drained an Olympic-size swimming pool in the winter and put down a green carpet and net.

Ana Ivanovic is the first Serbian woman to reach a Grand Slam final at Roland Garros since Monica Seles. The 20-year-old Djokovic is ranked No. 3 after winning four titles this year and reaching the U.S. Open final only to lose the top-ranked Roger Federer.

Don’t we love those Cinderella stories?

(Photo source: wtatour.ru)

After earlier reports that tennis world No 4 Maria Sharapova and her camp had decided to skip this year’s Kremlin Cup, now Russian media report that after all Sharapova will be playing in Kremlin Cup.

Sharapova was forced to pull out of the Kremlin Cup with an injury last year and was beaten by compatriot Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals in 2005.

Other confirmed participants are world No. 1 Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo of France and a number of leading Russian players, including world No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova and defending champion sixth-ranked Anna Chakvetadze. According to Lenta.ru, Serena Williams is also planning to participate. She has requested a visa and hotel reservation, local tour organizers said.

Kremin Cup is a $1.34 million Tier 1 indoor tournament in Moscow. It will be held at Moscow’s Olympic sports complex from Oct. 6 to 14.

(Sources: Lenta.ru, Reuters.com)

After so much publicized Marat Safin’s decision to climb Mount Cho-Oyu, here comes Marat Safin’s letter to his fans relayed by Amit Naor (his former coach and good friend):

“Dear fans,

I am writing this letter on behalf of Marat who has been in touch with me in the last 48 hours and asked me to pass on this message to you all.

As you know Marat has taken an interesting step because of various reasons which he explained in his letter to you last week. And it has been an adventure - doing his acclimatisation climb and getting used to all that is part of climbing mountains.

The delegation has reached the next height of moving to the base camp for Cho-Oyu and at this stage Marat has realised several points.

First of all Marat realised that this climb is a very serious challenging issue and not just an adventure. He loves the experience and is fully into it but realises that it has to be treated with great caution and respect. And the next step is a very big one indeed.

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Today’s New York Times has an interesting (or … maybe whining) article on why Davis Cup semifinals end up in a back seat.

…The matches that matter most at this late stage of the season are supposed to be the semifinals: the United States versus Sweden in Gothenburg and Russia versus Germany in Moscow. But the matches with the bigger buzz, larger crowds and more intriguing lineups are actually being played in Belgrade and Prague.

…It is a quirk of the Davis Cup’s oft-debated structure that this long weekend is also the long weekend of the World Group playoffs, eight matches that will determine the makeup of next season’s 16-team first division. It so happens that the two leading men at the moment, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, are involved in the playoffs, not the semifinals. It also happens that Tim Henman has chosen to say farewell to the men’s Tour in the playoff at the All England Club between Britain and Croatia.

…

The full article is here.

Over the weekend, Russian tennis star Marat Safin bagged his very first summit - Murat (4100 m). Last week Safin arrived in Nepal with the intention of climbing Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth highest mountain, giving the former world number one a fresh challenge.

According to Reuters,

“ Safin is part of an eight-member Russian expedition which is due to leave Nepal today to climb Cho Oyu, the 8,201-metre (26,906 ft) mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border, a Nepalese hiking official said.

This is an interesting climb but he has (had) very good physical exercise,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said yesterday.

“He is young and energetic although the climb is challenging. I’m hopeful he will succeed,” said the official, providing logistic support to the expedition.

The expedition is expected to last over a month, which is also likely to rule Safin out of this month’s Davis Cup semi-final against Germany.

In response to journalists’ questions to Russian Davis Cup Captain Shamil Tarpishchev why Marat Safin had preferred alpinism to playing tennis for Russia, Tarpishchev said: “ Whatever is happening with Marat is internal. He has issues with himself.”

Typical Safin style. I like the guy!

(Photo source: 7 Summits Club)

Just three months after having a baby, former world number one Lindsay Davenport won the Bali Open title. She deserves a huge credit for returning to tennis so soon after giving birth. Imagine traveling around the world with a three-month-old baby, practicing tennis and dealing with post-pregnancy hormonal swings. She just gave a hugs boost to a lot of mothers around the world.

Davenport defeated second seed Daniela Hantuchova 6-4 3-6 6-2. En route to the final, she had already beaten the number one seed Jelena Jankovic from Serbia.

Photo: Nadia Petrova showing Maria Sharapova her seat:-)

With the arrival of Maria Sharapova to Moscow to help the Russian tennis team win the Fed Cup, the Russian news services and blogosphere are very active on covering this big sport event. Here are some translated tidbits that might interest you.

• “I would give us 70 percent chance to win with only 30 for Italy,” said Svetlana Kuznetsova, #1 Russian tennis player (#2 in world.)
• Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev: “Sharapova is a normal person. We are in very good terms. We don’t pay attention to what media is saying about why she decided to join the team. “
• Tarpishchev: “The fact that Maria Sharopova has been training with Anna Chakvetadze speaks about the improved relationship between their fathers. [There was some kind of a feud going on between those two. However, I couldn’t find more info. Do you know what was the cause?]
• Tarpishchev: “There is no tension between Sharapova and Kuzentsova. It was the media that exaggerated Kuznetsova’s comments. They actually like each other.”

With three players in the top 10, Russia is favoured to beat defending champion Italy and win its third Fed Cup title this weekend. Second-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 5 Anna Chakvetadze and No. 8 Nadia Petrova will lead Russia along with Elena Vesnina in the best-of-series on indoor hard courts.

Source: Sport.ru