She hasn’t been playing professional tennis for several years already, but she still somehow manages to make headlines when Wimbledon is in full swing. Russian former tennis player Anna Kournikova was reportedly involved in a bar brawl in Las Vegas on Saturday after a woman threw a drink over her. The woman who was apparently drunk was ejected, but not before leaving Anna with scratches on her neck.
I have blogged some time ago about how Svetlana Kuznetsova had felt somewhat left out and offended, when then-President Vladimir Putin didn’t call her to congratulate on her win at the U.S. Open. (Putin had managed to call Maria Sharapova (for her Wimbledon win and Anastasia Myskina for her Roland Garros win the same year). Yesterday, Sveta was able to securing her second grand slam title with a convincing French Open victory 6-4 6-2 against another Russian Dinara Safina. I was curoious to see if she was going to get a call from the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Now the wait is over. Sveta got a telegram this time. Better than nothing:-) It says:
“You have confirmed you are world class in the difficult fight for this honour, you demonstrated a strong character and will. Your stunning and emotionally tense playing became a brilliant continuation of the ‘Russian finals’ on the planet’s major tournaments, and proved again the supremacy of our country’s women tennis school.”
Getty Images has a beautiful photo of Sveta’s in front of the Eiffel tower with a trophy celebrating her win. Check it out here.
No. 1 Dinara Safina and No. 7 Svetlana Kuznetsova meet today in the French Open’s women’s final, a matchup of 23-year-old Russians. Here is what they said about each other:
Svetlana Kuznetsova about Dinara Safina (via Sovetski Sport):
“We have a really good relationship with each other. Our tennis rivalry doesn’t allow us to become closer friends. Nevertheless, we talk to each other about various life topics, give each other advice. I have much closer ties with Nadia Petrova. Before her, Likhovtseva was a good friend of mine, when she was on the tour. I know Dinara since we were 12-13. I remember, she was a year younger than me, but would beat me always 6:1, 6:0 - something like that. I had no chance of winning her. Thus, I was looking at her always differently. After all I was a girl from St. Petersburg. She was a Moscovite. Her mom was one of the chief tennis coaches of the country. Her brother–a superstar. I remember running and shouting after him to get an autograph: “Marat, Marat, give me an autograph, please. I know your sister.” By the way, Dinara’s mom, greatly helped my parents, when they decided to send me into the Spanish academy. Safina was also being trained in Spain at that time. But even then we were first and foremost tennis rivals.”
Dinara Safina about Svetlana Kuznetsova (via RIA Novosti)
“Svetlana is a very open and honest person. She will never do anything behind your back. I think it is a very valuable quality. Whether she is right or wrong, it is another issue, but she will say whatever is on her mind. But there are people who smile at you and then stab your back. I know that Sveta will never do that.”
Russia’s Vera Zvonareva has been named a “Promoter of Gender Equality” by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Zvonareva, who will take part in women’s leadership programmes through the UNESCO-Sony Ericsson WTA Tour partnership, has joined Venus Williams, Tatiana Golovin, Zheng Jie as well as Tour founder Billie Jean King as the fifth United Nations ambassador. Vera is also enrolled in the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she is studying for a graduate diploma in International Relations and Economics. She also blogs for a Russian sports site.
Tatiana Golovin surely likes what Anastasia Myskina is doing with her post-tennis career. Sidelined with a hip injury, the French tennis player of Russian origin (something that the Russian press never forgets to mention) will work as a TV commentator for the France Télévisions during the Roland Garros. That’s a good news for me! Since Eurosport is not broadcasting Roland Garros in my area, I can only watch it on French channels. Given my limited knowledge of French, it becomes quite important who covers the event. The last year’s commentators were quite boring (though still not as boring as the ones working for Eurosport). When you don’t understand the language, it becomes quite important to listen to commentators who are colorful and emotionally unrestrained:-) Let’s say…like…the Spanish commentators. Once, I somehow started watching Rafa’s match on Spanish television (I think it was during the Olympics), oh, man, the coverage was HOT! There was not a single hint or attempt to appear fair and balanced. They were sweating and moaning alongside with Rafa, and screaming after each beautiful shot. Quite an experience, I must say:-)
Tati is not the only one with TV career dreams. In an interview with the Russian media, Elena Dementieva has also mentioned that she is planning to study journalism after retiring from tennis, so that she can work for television.
Injured Serena Williams has been upset by 95th-ranked Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic in a clay-court tournament in Spain. Zakopalova won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 Wednesday in the first round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience. I wonder how much was the appearance fee that Serena flew to Spain to lose in the first round?
Serena’s loss helps Russian Dinara Safina to claim the WTA top ranking
Victoria Azarenka, the 19-year-old from Belarus, defeated world number one Serena Williams 6-3 6-1 to win the Sony Ericsson Open. In post-match interview Azarenka explained why so many Eastern European women have done so well in tennis of late: “I would say it’s I think it’s just the mentality. Like the Russians, a lot of us, we didn’t have many things when we were growing up. It’s just the hunger for playing and just wanting to do better and get as many opportunities as you can to be better in your life.”
The New York Times had an article about U.S. tennis losing ground in developing players. Here is an interesting statistics from that article. “Of the top 100 ranked players on the WTA Tour as of March 23, only four were American, and two were in the top 10, the Williams sisters, Serena (No. 1) and Venus (No. 6). (The other two were No. 37 Bethanie Mattek-Sands and No. 85 Jill Craybas.) By contrast, 14 Russian women were ranked among the top 100, including 10 in the top 50 and five among the top 10.”
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias managed to show the world that their relationship was going strong when the kiss cam found them on the stands during the Sony Ericsson semi-final match between Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
During a recent press conference, in response to a question if Anna is the love of her life, Iglesias said “If you ask me right now, I’d say she’s the woman in my life, but I don’t know if eternal love exists. The reality is that lots of people who get married get divorced but I’ll be able to answer that question when I’m 90, then I’ll be able to say if I was with her the rest of my life,”
(See more photos here.)
Well… I don’t know. However, Matthew Cronin at Tennisreporters.net thinks that Anna Chakvetadze’s father’s quote about Maria Sharapova is most likely false.
For those of you who read the Russian Express story that alleged that Anna Chakvedatze’s father Djambuli told Yuri Sharapov that he has lost all control of Maria, that story is said to have no basis in reality. Mr. Chakvetadze and Sharapova are not friends and would never have such a conversation.
Due to the massive cutbacks in the publishing industry, reporting, or lack there of, has grown increasingly sketchy, while the editing, or the lack there of, has also hit the skids.
I also posted about the Chakvetadze’s father’s quote on my site, which I got from the Russian Daily Express. The argument that Maria’s father and Anna’s father are not friends might not be entirely accurate. When Maria was in Moscow for Fed Cup trainings, the Russian media reported back then that feuding fathers Yuri Sharapov and Djamal had made up. Russia’s team captain himself confirmed in a quote that the fact that Anna and Maria were training together spoke about the improved relationship between their fathers. Having said that, I am also not sure if the quote was true or false. When it comes to Russian media, the line between tabloid press and reliable news reporting is really blurred. It is common to see a typical National Enquirer-type article appearing next to a 60 minute-style investigative report:-)
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