In the absence of Olympic gold and silver winners Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova has become the leader of Russia's team in the Fed Cup final.
Photo: AP
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Russia Ready for Spain in Fed Cup Final
Russia’s tennis team will clash with the team of Spain in the Federation Cup final tournament that starts in Madrid tomorrow. Due to the predictability of the outcome, the event was of no particular interest to the crowd just a month ago. But it’s quite another matter nowadays. The strength of the Russians doesn’t appear particularly impressive and the intrigue is back to the competition.
For Russia, the Fed Cup trophy has been something usual recently. We won it three times in the past four years. Of interest is that Spain had similar result in 1990s, when they prevailed at five Fed Cup tournaments. But the generation change ended that string of victories.
But Spain might win again at this final. The thing is that Russia’s captain Shamil Tarpischev has lost the best players en route to the trophy. Maria Sharapova that first played at the Fed Cup this year can’t recover from injury, while the Olympic heroines Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina took a break after the U.S. Open because of the general weariness. Anna Chakvetadze refused, reasoning that her form was far from the optimal one.
Therefore, Shamil Tarpischev can count on only two stars now – world No. 7 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 9 Vera Zvonareva. Zvonareva that won bronze at the Olympics will be playing the accumulated fatigue notwithstanding. Other players of Russia’s team are Elena Vesnina (world No. 61) and Ekaterina Makarova (No. 58).
In essence, the second team of Russia is stronger than the first squad of Spain. Spain’s leader Anabel Medina Garriges is the No. 29 in the WTA rating. But they will be plying at home and on the favorite clay cover and they have already seen off the squads of Italy and China to advance to the final.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 12, 2008
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