• 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)

As it says on the Fed Cup site, “no matter where you turn in the women’s game today you’re apt to find a Russian woman ruling the day.” The Russian Fed Cup team faces China in Moscow Feb. 7-8.

A photo trip down memory lane:

Russia Fed Cup 2008

Russia Fed Cup 2007

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The two former Scotland Yard detectives who led the review of tennis have concluded in their report that there was no evidence to back Russian or Italian mafia links in tennis. Do you find this report convincing enough?

Russia’s tennis head Shamil Tarpischev, who turns 60 on Friday, will be awarded by President Vladimir Putin with the Order of Service to the Fatherland, fourth degree. Tarpischev, has been the longtime president of the Russian Tennis Federation and captained the Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams to their first championships. He became captain of the Soviet Union Davis Cup team in 1973, a job he held until 1991 when he joined the government of close friend and new president Boris Yeltsin. He also was Yeltsin’s personal tennis coach. Tarpischev regained the captaincy in 1997, and also took over leadership of the Fed Cup team. (Via AP)

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.

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 »

–Marat Safin is planning to play for Russia in the opening Davis Cup tie against Serbia. It will be held from February 8 to 10 in Moscow. Hopefully New Year’s partying and vodka drinking sessions in Moscow will give a good jump start to his 2008 season The New Year celebrations are huge in Russia. Partying and eating for about two weeks! Russia celebrates Christmas on January 7 which usually gets lost in the New Year’s partying frenzy.

–”Creepy” news! Officials have drawn the line at auctioning the hotel toilet seat to be used by Maria Sharapova when the Tennis “Really Golden” Girl plays an exhibition against Anna Chakvetadze next weekend in Singapore. Since the raised money will go to charities, I’d say if there are crazies out there willing to pay thousands of dollars for it, let’s do it for charitable causes!

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Maria Sharapova gets mentioned in 2008 World Book Encyclopedia. (Via On the Baseline)

Dinara Safina is one of the players featured in the 2008 Tennis Players to Watch series. (Dinara Safina Makes Her Mark as Russians Continue to Dominate Tennis).

Nikolay Davydenko: World number four player Kolya whines about not being able to relocate to Moscow because he cannot afford an apartment there. Davydenko is a Russian citizen of Ukrainian origin, currently living in Germany, lists tax-haven Monte Carlo as his permanent residence, AND has applied for Austrian citizenship. Talk about Globalization! (Tvoy Den).

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ESPN chat with Dmitry Tursunov

On Tuesday, Russian tennis player Dmitry Tursunov will join ESPN to talk about the Davis Cup and all things tennis. Tursunov beat Andy Roddick 17-15 in the fifth set of last year’s Davis Cup semifinal with the US team. You may send in your questions before the live chat. Tursunov is an eccentric funny Russian who grew up in Northern California since he was 12. He is the blogging king among the tennis players. Check out this interesting article about him in New York Times.

Marat Safin to play in Kooyong Classic

Handsome Russian Marat Safin will be among the eight players to participate in Kooyong Classic. The others are American Andy Roddick, Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez, Britain’s Andy Murray, Germany’s Tommy Haas, Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic and Argentina’s David Nalbandian who got the last spot.

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