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.

In an interview with a Russian sport site, Olympics gold medal winner Elena Dementieva talks about getting an Olympic tattoo, dedicating the victory to her mother, and celebration her major win with friends and relatives in Moscow. Read the full Google-translated interview here.

Russian women tennis players made a history today in Beijing by sweeping medals in women’s singles. The victory made Russia the first nation to win all medals in one tennis event since Britain did a hundred years ago in women’s singles. Elena Dementieva won the gold medal in women’s singles by beating fellow Russian Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Vera Zvonareva beat Li Na of China 6-0, 7-5 to win the bronze.

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. 

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.

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 »

Igor Andreev and Anna Chakvetadze were honored yesterday as the best tennis players of Russia in 2007. Russia’s Fed Cup has won “The Team of the Year” award.

Chakvetadze enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2007, ended the season at No 7 in the world and managed to win four titles. As to Andreev, I am not sure why he was chosen. He didn’t win a single title this year, however has been a very valuable player for Russia’s Davis Cup team. Championat.ru reports that Andreev received the award and didn’t even stay for the post-ceremony party. He hurried to watch the football (soccer for my US readers) game between Russia and Israel.

Andreev looks like as if he is waiting for his bride:-) And Anna has that ever-virgin look in her eyes.

Read more »

(Via On the Baseline) - Now you know who is more intense.

Elena Dementieva of Russia rallied from a set down to beat Serena Williams on Sunday for the title at the Kremlin Cup. Dementieva played exceptionally well (even Serena admitted it) and managed to get away with only six double-faults, a low number for a three-set match and for Elena particularly. Dementieva’s win will bring her back to top 10. Great present on her birthday. Elena is turning 26 on Monday.

Happy birthday!

Technorati Tags: Elena Dementieva, Serena Williams, Kremlin Cup

Who is more intense? Who is going to win? I loved those photos

(Kremlin Cup) Fourth-seeded Serena Williams overpowered top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 6-1 to reach her first Kremlin Cup final on Saturday. She will play another Russian Elena Dementieva who crushed compatriot Dinara Safina 6-1 6-0.

(Photos: ASAP Press via Tennis and Business)