The most charismatic Russian tennis player Marat Safin is celebrating his 28th birthday today. Happy Birthday Marat! (TIB: Safin is scheduled to play for Russia in a Davis Cup tie against Serbia in Moscow from Feb. 8 to 10. He has also confirmed his participation in Dubai Tennis Championships.)

A big day for American tennis. The United States won its first Davis Cup title since 1995. On the indoor hard court at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, the U.S. won the first three matches in the best-of-five final against Russia.The United States now has 32 titles in the international team competition, dating to 1900.

The U.S. last hosted the Davis Cup final in 1992, in Fort Worth, Texas. Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe defeated Switzerland. (Source: Reuters)

Maestro Roger beats Andy again.

Deuce Magazine features Warrior David Ferrer, who conquered Rafa Nadal to play Swiss top gun Federer in Masters Cup final.

Nikolay Davydenko wraps up his Masters Cup performance with a win over Fernando Gonzalez and goes to the Maldives to get some rest before Davis Cup final.

The German Tennis Federation plays down the Tommy Haas poisoning allegations.

Russia’s Davis Cup Captain Shamil Tarpischev reveals some of his secrets on how to motivate a player. In last year’s marathon match between Tursunov and Roddick, Tarpischev told Tursunov to get angry. When exhausted Dima said “I don’t know how,” Tarpischev’s response was: “Imagine, Volkov (another Russian coach) stole your girlfriend.”

Russia’s tennis captain Shamil Tarpischev has decided not to put charismatic Marat Safin on his team’s roaster in the upcoming Davis Cup final against the U.S.

Nikolay Davydenko will lead the Russian team which also includes world number 19 Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev (33) and Dmitry Tursunov (34) for the three-day tie that starts on Nov. 30 in Portland, Oregon.

“There’s no point in drafting Marat to play the Americans. He only began training again this week after an extended break,” Tarpishchev told Reuters.

“But you can always change a player even just before the draw, so there’s is still a small chance that he would be in the team if someone’s injured or is not in top form. Marat might go to Portland anyway. He could be our secret weapon there.”

Read more »

As if recent tennis match fixing and drug allegations weren’t enough to make tennis-indifferents ( I just coined that word) become interested in the sport of tennis, now Hollywood-style-Russian-mafia stories are circulating in media. German tennis star Tommy Haas announced that he believes he was poisoned during his country’s Davis Cup semi-final defeat to Russia in Moscow last September. The International Tennis Federation has started to investigate the claim. Read more »

Oh Marat, Marat… The guy is charismatic no matter what he does or doesn’t. Safin fans are going to be disappointed not to be able to see him in Portland, Oregon playing against the U.S. team in Davis Cup final. Marat Safin has ruled himself out of the Davis Cup final thus wrapping up his 2007 tennis season. His website explains.

“His mountain adventure which he thoroughly enjoyed, took him out of his rhythm and also left him with no energy. He thought he was ready coming back in Moscow but found that the stress of playing back to back tournaments was too much and his body just was not ready to cope with it. He thought he could play at a good level but it didn’t happen. “

His site also said that he will take three weeks off before meeting with coach Hernan Gumy to work out a plan of action to prepare for the start of 2008 in Australia in January.

Russia’s Davis Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev said he had already been issues a visa by U.S. authorities to attend the Davis Cup final against the United states in Portland, Oregon. Apparently he has learned his lesson when it comes to getting a US visa. and applied early to avoid delays.

Tarpischev had problems obtaining American visa for Olympic competitions in Atlanta and Salt Lake City. He almost missed a crucial Fed Cup semifinal in Vermont. He was able to get a visa only after the intervention of Russian foreign ministry, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the U.S. Olympic Committee, the ITF and the U.S. Tennis Federation.

In an interview with Reuters, Tarpishchev said his visa problems had been going on for the past decade and he thought he might be on a black list by U.S. authorities because he had in the past been accused of having links to the Russian mafia, a charge he denies.

(Sources: Reuters, Championat.ru)

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

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.

Read more »

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.