Maria Kirilenko turns 23 today. Happy Birthday! Good luck at the Australian Open!

Sovetski Sport has published an interesting interview conducted at Roland Garros with Shamil Tarpischev, the head of the Russian Tennis Federation.  I have translated some of the interesting points below:

About Maria Sharapova:

“The shoulder pain has gone. But the psychological fear of getting an injury is still there. No plans to talk to her about her Fed Cup participation in 2010. I am sure she would like to concentrate on improving her ranking.”

About Anna Chakvetadze and Maria Kirilenko:

“Both of them are “mind”-players. But in today’s tennis it will not take you far. They need to add power to their game. I am not saying that they have to add  a lot of muscles, but it is a weak area that they need to work on. I can’t force them to do it, they need to understand it themselves.

About Svetlana Kuznetsova:

I was a little bit disappointed that the partnership between Sveta and Olga Morozova didn’t work out. But what can you do, their characters didn’t click. From psychological perspective, Svetlana is quite happy with her recent move to Russia. But she still has some gaps in her technical game, and she needs a coach to address those problems. (Her current coach is Larisa Savchenko, also recommended by Tarischev.)

• Elena Dementieva will not play in an upcoming  Fed Cup tie against Italy on April 25-26. She will be replaced by Vera Zvonareva. (Go Tennis)
• Elena Dementieva was ousted by Venus Williams 6-3, 6-3 at the Dubai Tennis Championships. (The Sports Network)
• Nikolay Davydenko will miss Davis Cup showdown against Romania (Fox Sports)
• Maria Kirilenko’s boyfriend Igor Andreev gives an interview for Maria’s website on Valentine’s Day.  (Maria Kirilenko website)
• Marat Safin’s girlfriend expresses her love for the charismatic Russian tennis player through a newspaper on Valentines day. Don’t worry, no wedding plans on the horizon yet:-) (KP)

While our stars are busy enjoying their lives during the off season (which means falling in love, breaking up, buying tournaments, posing for magazine covers, etc). Let’s take a look at some photos of famous Russian stars and their “significant others.” Since this is based on mostly gossip, I have to say I don’t really know if these couples are still together as of my writing:-)

Maria Sharapova and Charlie Ebersol. When talking about Russian stars, she comes first.  Along with posing for magazines, making headlines for being threatened by a crazy tennis player, Maria Sharapova also managed to find a boyfriend while waiting for her shoulder to heal).

Igor Andreev and Maria Kirilenko. (Wikipedia still says Andreev is dating Russian fashionista Masha K.) Don’t they look like the blond version of this famous tennis couple

Mikhail Youzhny and Julia Thomas. So he can also be nice and tender?

Nikolay Davydenko and his wife Irina. (I hope Irina has more color and personality than her famous husband).

Marat Safin and Russian pop singer Nastya Osipova. (Our favorite playboy’s latest girlfriend didn’t score high among his  fan base:-)

…and Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias.

Are there any other couples out there that I don’t know of?

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 »

Russian Players Results, Second Round Singles

(2) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) 7-6(0) 6-2

(6) Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) d. (Q) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) 6-3 6-4

(14) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. Anne Kremer (LUX) 7-5 7-5(27)

Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. Akiko Morigami (JPN) 61 61

Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d. Yvonne Meusburger (AUT) 6-3 6-1

The Russian men were not as successful as the Russian women.

(32) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) lost to Sam Querrey (USA) 6-7 (5-7), 64, 46, 26

Marat Safin (RUS) lost to Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 46, 46, 62, 63, 26.