Her name is Nadezhda. HOPE in Russian. Is this her last chance for a first slam title? Nadia Petrova has been showing some powerful tennis at this year’s Australian Open. She destroyed US Open champion Kim Clijsters 6-0 6-1 in the third round, upset third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round and is now targeting former world No.1 Justine Henin in the quarter-final.
Can she do it?
(photo: wtatour.ru)
Just do it… Make millions! World’s highest-paid female athlete is going to get even richer. Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova has extended her sponsorship deal with Nike in an eight-year $70 million agreement. The contract goes into effect this month and includes a line of dresses designed by Maria. She currently makes close to $22 million a year in prize money and from endorsing companies (Tiffany & Co, Sony Ericsson and Canon). She consistently ranks as the highest paid-female athlete of the world and the highest paid athlete in Russia for the last several years. Read more »
Maria Sharapova asks for some good luck from monks in Thailand. Her luck will be tested soon at the Australian Open.
photos: mariasharapova.com
Former Russian tennis star Anastasia Myskina did a photo shoot recently with the OK magazine and gave a quite candid interview about her life. Here are some of the notable quotes:
About relationship
“I have been with my current partner for three and half years (who is also the father of her son Zhenya). We met at a gathering. Everything was logical and not romantic. I think he has never watched tennis. My husband is a businessman and he is quite far from any sports. I am not planning to say his name, he is quite private and I don’t see any need to publicize our relationship.”
About TV anchor job
I have worked as a football TV commentator for about a half year and, to tell the truth, I never felt comfortable in that role. I have never been interested in football, even though the players are interesting personalities. I like more commenting about tennis. Also, I am a co-host of the TV program called “Tell me, what’s wrong.” Along with a therapist, we help couples solve relationship issues.
(Source)
Did you know that Svetlana Kuznetsova has a blog? Sorry, but it is in Russian, and she doesn’t update it often. There are only a couple of entries. Here are a couple of tidbits from her blog posts.
She doesn’t like being called Kuzy
“The fans have been asking me if I like being called Kuzy. I used to like it, and had no problem with it before. I don’t get offended but I think I am a little bit older now, no longer Kuzy, and would prefer if people call me Sveta or Svetlana. That’s my request!
Clarifies who is who in her team:
“To clarify, Andrey Olkhovskiy is not my sparring partner. My sparring partner remains Alexander Krasnorutskiy. Andrey is my other coach. In the future, it is quite likely that I will be working with both Andrey and Larisa.”
The blog is available here (in Russian). (Photo: from Svetlana Kuznetsova’s blog)
Russian PROsport magazine’s August 3rd issue features Svetlana Kuznetsova. The photos have turned out to be quite beautiful. Last December, PROsport also had a great photo session with Vera Zvonareva.
Tennis player Maria Sharapova with an annual income of $22 million tops the list of the 50 powerful Russian celebrities. She is followed by football forward Andrei Arshavin with over $7 million. There are 19 newcomers on the list among whom are Dinara Safina (16th, $4.5 million), and Vera Zvonareva (42nd, $2,4 million). Elena Dementieva was the 19th ($1.9 million) and Svetlana Kuznetsova was 33rd ($3 million). The rankings were estimated based on earnings, media exposure and search terms on Yandex Russian search engine.
Interestingly Maria was also the only Russian ranked at 76th on the Forbes’ 100 Celebrities list 2009. It should be noted that Maria was sidelines for nine months by the shoulder injury. Despite her absence from the courts, her web rank was 15. Not bad ha?
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.”
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