Eighth seeded Russian Elena Dementieva came a set down to beat the third-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in quarterfinal action at the $1.5 million Dubai Tennis Championships. However, the major upset of the day was Number one see Justine Henin’s loss to unseeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (7-3) and 7-6 (7-4). Svetlana Kuznetsova also reached the semi-finals after beating France’s Amelie Mauresmo and will play fourth-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic who had an “easy” victory when sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze retired with an injury after losing the first set. 

Tennis’ Don Juan (aka Radek Stepanek) shows off his signature celebration and explains the origin.

As a person who loves playing chess and keeping my monkey-mind busy with Sudoku, I was nicely surprised to read that Ana Ivonovic also has a passion for Sudoku. “From the time I was young, I have loved these sort of games that require some mental exercise. Sudoko helps me keep my focus and concentrate on my thinking. I find Sudoko is the best way to get prepared for a match,” Ivanovic said.

I also believe it helps reducing the risk of developing an Alzheimer’s disease–not that Ana needs to worry about it now:-) (Via On the Baseline)

Maria Sharapova avenged her loss to Agnieszka Radwanska at the U.S. Open by defeating her 6-4, 6-3 and setting up an all-Russian final at the Qatar Open. She will play Vera Zvonareva in the final Sunday who rallied to defeat China’s Li Na 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinal. Zvonareva has been out much of 2007 with injuries but has managed to enroll in the Russian Diplomatic Academy majoring in World Economics. Vera blogs for Russian sports site Championat.ru. Read more »

For a fourth time in a row, Swiss Roger Federer won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, and Justine Henin won the women’s award for the first time. Federer was thankful that the selection committee didn’t think three was enough.

Henin, meanwhile, became the first tennis player to win 10 titles in a season since Martina Hingis 10 years ago despite skipping the 2007 Australian Open after splitting with her husband.

The Awards Ceremony was held in the Mariinsky Concert Hall, St. Petersburg Russia. Even Mr. Putin was there to congratulate the superstars of the sport world.

[TIB Note: Contrary to earlier reports by Russian media, I can’t find any confirmation that Maria Sharapova hosted the ceremony. I guess it was only a rumor, since Maria is in Doha, getting ready to compete in Qatar Open.] (Source: AP, Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Justine, you can do more than play tennis. I am somewhat disappointed of Justin Henin’s comments about “not mixing politics and sports.” She is just lucky to be from Belgium, a prosperous democratic country, with a great human rights record, which shares borders with other developed countries. Why should she even “be bothered” about the other inhabitants of the planet Earth. Too self-centered. Here is a good bed-time reading material for you Justine. Oh, and here is another one. You don’t have to boycott the Olympic Games, but you can at least voice your concern about China’s human rights record.

… Henin yesterday warned Olympic athletes not to buy into debate on China’s human rights record while at the Beijing Games. Read more »

Russian sports site Russia Today has conducted an exclusive interview with Rafael Nadal. World No 2 speaks about his future plans, breaking Bjorn Borg’s record and favorite female tennis players. (OK, I’ll save you time on this one. He likes Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin–that is the way they play:-)

The interview in Russian is here. The Google-translated English version is here.

This photo shows that at least these three Russian players are getting along just fine.

(In photo: Dinara Safina, Elena Vesnina and Maria Sharapova via sports.ru)

It is that time of the year again. I am talking about the Sports Oscar. St. Petersburg, Russia, will be the focus of the sporting world when it stages the 2008 Laureus World Sports Awards in the Marinsky Concert Hall on February 18. The glittering award ceremony will be hosted by famous Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova along with another equally famous Russian export supermodel (with Cinderella story) Natalia Vodianova.

Laureus is a universal movement that celebrates the power of sport to bring people together as a force for good. Laureus World Sports Awards are awarded annually to sportspeople who have been outstanding during the previous year. World No. 1 tennis player Roger Federer has won Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the last three years consecutively. Unlike Sports Illustrated, they know what they are doing. He is among nominees again.

World No. 1 Justine Henin has been nominated for the 2008 Laureus World Sportswoman Award. The full list of nominees are available here.

Defending champion Russia overcame a loud 4,000-strong Israeli crowd Sunday to reach the Fed Cup semifinals where they will face either USA or Germany.

Russia was 1-1 with Israel when Maria Sharapova won her second rubber match beating Israel’s star Shahar Peer 6-1, 6-1. Then Anna Chakvetadze defeated Tsipi Obziler 6-4, 6-2 despite the hostile crowd. The win was sealed by Russia’s Elena Vesnina and Dinara Safina who overcame Israel’s Obziler and Peer 6-0, 1-6, 6-4 in doubles.

Israeli fans were out of control. During Anna Chakvetadze’s match they were booing her and even calling balls out during some points. Chakvetadze used the taunting to her advantage and later accused the Israeli fans of having a lack of respect towards the players. “I expected the crowd to be noisy, but not like that,” she told reporters. “Maybe they thought they came to a soccer match.”

Maria Sharapova also got some “love” from Israeli fans. In the second set of her first match the crowd began imitating the famous grunts she makes on each shot as she hits the ball. But not only did Sharapova ignore the mimicking, she even said afterwards that it inspired her and she loved “the craziness of the Israeli fans.” Check out the video of it. It is quite entertaining:-)

However, it looks like Russia’s captain Shamil Tarpischev doesn’t find it entertaining at all. He has filed a complaint against the umpires and the officials of the tie citing that they did very little to control the crowd. “It felt as if we were playing in the zoo,” Tarpischev told in an interview with Sport-Express. He was also unhappy about the fact that the organizers have oversold the tickets, and the guests of the Russian team were left without seats.