–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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Russian mafia’s attraction to the world of sports is nothing new. There are many examples how the Russian organized crime has successfully targeted top sports players, has socialized with them, and in some cases established businesses together. Most of these cases have involved hockey players, one of which is world famous Pavel Bure (Anna Kournikova’s ex-boyfriend/fiancé). However, after months of match-fixing allegations in tennis, AFP reports that US tennis legend John McEnroe expressed his concern that organized crime, such as the Russian mafia, could be infiltrating tennis. The outspoken former world number one believes that threats to tennis players or their families could be forcing them into throwing matches. Read more »

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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Russia’s tennis captain Shamil Tarpischev has decided not to put charismatic Marat Safin on his team’s roaster in the upcoming Davis Cup final against the U.S.

Nikolay Davydenko will lead the Russian team which also includes world number 19 Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev (33) and Dmitry Tursunov (34) for the three-day tie that starts on Nov. 30 in Portland, Oregon.

“There’s no point in drafting Marat to play the Americans. He only began training again this week after an extended break,” Tarpishchev told Reuters.

“But you can always change a player even just before the draw, so there’s is still a small chance that he would be in the team if someone’s injured or is not in top form. Marat might go to Portland anyway. He could be our secret weapon there.”

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Oh Marat, Marat… The guy is charismatic no matter what he does or doesn’t. Safin fans are going to be disappointed not to be able to see him in Portland, Oregon playing against the U.S. team in Davis Cup final. Marat Safin has ruled himself out of the Davis Cup final thus wrapping up his 2007 tennis season. His website explains.

“His mountain adventure which he thoroughly enjoyed, took him out of his rhythm and also left him with no energy. He thought he was ready coming back in Moscow but found that the stress of playing back to back tournaments was too much and his body just was not ready to cope with it. He thought he could play at a good level but it didn’t happen. “

His site also said that he will take three weeks off before meeting with coach Hernan Gumy to work out a plan of action to prepare for the start of 2008 in Australia in January.

I have decided to add a new category called Interview Gems. The idea came to me when I was reading Marat Safin’s interview after his second round loss at Kremlin Cup. I have a hunch that Andy Roddick’s interview bits are going to be very popular in this new category:-)

After so much publicized Marat Safin’s decision to climb Mount Cho-Oyu, here comes Marat Safin’s letter to his fans relayed by Amit Naor (his former coach and good friend):

“Dear fans,

I am writing this letter on behalf of Marat who has been in touch with me in the last 48 hours and asked me to pass on this message to you all.

As you know Marat has taken an interesting step because of various reasons which he explained in his letter to you last week. And it has been an adventure - doing his acclimatisation climb and getting used to all that is part of climbing mountains.

The delegation has reached the next height of moving to the base camp for Cho-Oyu and at this stage Marat has realised several points.

First of all Marat realised that this climb is a very serious challenging issue and not just an adventure. He loves the experience and is fully into it but realises that it has to be treated with great caution and respect. And the next step is a very big one indeed.

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Over the weekend, Russian tennis star Marat Safin bagged his very first summit - Murat (4100 m). Last week Safin arrived in Nepal with the intention of climbing Cho Oyu, the world’s sixth highest mountain, giving the former world number one a fresh challenge.

According to Reuters,

“ Safin is part of an eight-member Russian expedition which is due to leave Nepal today to climb Cho Oyu, the 8,201-metre (26,906 ft) mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border, a Nepalese hiking official said.

This is an interesting climb but he has (had) very good physical exercise,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said yesterday.

“He is young and energetic although the climb is challenging. I’m hopeful he will succeed,” said the official, providing logistic support to the expedition.

The expedition is expected to last over a month, which is also likely to rule Safin out of this month’s Davis Cup semi-final against Germany.

In response to journalists’ questions to Russian Davis Cup Captain Shamil Tarpishchev why Marat Safin had preferred alpinism to playing tennis for Russia, Tarpishchev said: “ Whatever is happening with Marat is internal. He has issues with himself.”

Typical Safin style. I like the guy!

(Photo source: 7 Summits Club)