Russia’s tennis boss Shamil Tarpischev has announced his team  for the upcoming Fed Cup final tie against Spain. Though traditionally Russia has the best selection pool when it comes to Fed Cup, it seems Russia’s captain had to be satisfied with a second-string team. World number 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova will lead the team comprised of world number 10 and Beijing bronze medalist Vera Zvonareva, 56th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova and number 71 Elena Vesnina.

Elena Dementieva, and Dinara Safina are somewhat exhausted after their recent sucesses in Olympics and US Open, Anna Chakvetadze can’t find her form after the horrific robbery attack, and Maria Sharapova is out with a shoulder injury.

“This is the best team we could assemble at the moment. Dementieva and Safina have a real chance to become world number one so we have to give them a break,” Tarpischev said.

Russians dominate.

WTA Top 10 Rankings (August 25, 2008)

1. Ana Ivanovic - Serbia - 3612

2. Jelena Jankovic - Serbia - 3515

3. Serena Williams - United States - 3341

4. Svetlana Kuznetsova - Russia - 3181

5. Maria Sharapova - Russia - 3131

6. Elena Dementieva - Russia - 3070

7. Dinara Safina - Russia - 3047

8. Venus Williams - United States - 2586

9. Anna Chakvetadze - Russia - 2230

10. Vera Zvonareva - Russia - 2117

In an interview with RBK TV Russia’s tennis boss Shamil Tarpischev has said that he has almost finalized the list of the Russian players for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. There are four spots available for Russia. Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Anna Chakvetadze are confirmed participants. For the last spot, Tarpischev said he still needed to make a decision between Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva. As for the men’s side, things are more complicated. Since there are five players equally qualifying for the four available tickets– Nikolay Davydenko, Mikail Youzhny, Dmitry Tursunov, and Marat Safin. June 8th is the deadline for the submission of the final participants’ list.

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. 

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.

Russia 1-1 Israel
Maria Sharapova (RUS) def. Tzipi Obziler (ISR) 6-0, 6-4
Dinara Safina (RUS) l. Shahar Peer (ISR) 0-6, 6-2, 6-2.

(Photos: Alexander Safonov,championat.ru)

We have officially reached to the point where Russian players start eliminating each other at Australian Open.

First Elena Vesnina was crashed out of the event by fellow Russian Maria Sharapova 3-6, 0-6. The winner of the next all-Russian match was Maria Kirilenko. She successfully eliminated sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze.

More Russian duels are on the way. Maria Sharapova faces another tough Russian on the fourth round namely eleventh-seeded Elena Dementieva. They have encountered on nine different occasions, with seven victories for Sharapova. In another all-Russian duel, big hitting Nadia Petrova meets Ekaterina Makarova.

On the men’s side, Nikolay Davydenko will play with Mikhail Youzhny.

Sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia was upset in three sets by compatriot Maria Kirilenko, seeded 27. Both players have Martina Hingis-style of play. They play very smart tennis. There were lots of question marks about Chakvetadze’s physical and psychological preparedness after experiencing a house robbery during the off-season. In the third set, it seemed to me that Anna hardly held back her tears. Her father/coach Djambuli hasn’t even waited for the match to end to leave the stadium. Not a very smart move! Read more »

21 players from Russia have entered the Australian Open for men’s and women’s singles matches. 17 of them have advanced to the second round.

The first round results of the Russian players:

Women’s Singles Winners:

(5) Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. Jelena Kostanic Tosic (CRO) 6-4 6-3

(11) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. Tzipora Obziler (ISR) 6-2 6-2 Read more »

According to Russia’s Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpischev, Anna Chakvetadze hasn’t yet recovered from the robbery ordeal: “Anna has problems with her left hand–she almost cannot feel her fingers, because during the attack her hands were tied very tightly with some ropes,” told Tarpischev to the newspaper Sovetskiy Sport.

He went on to explain that Chakvetadze had already started practicing, but she had not fully recovered yet, for which she is currently undergoing acupuncture treatments with a Chinese expert. Tarpischev also noted that the whole ordeal had left Anna quite traumatized. She doesn’t want to stay home. Who would want to?

Read more »