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Sharapova and Co take commanding Fed Cup lead against Spain
Published: 04 February, 2012, 18:34
Maria Sharapova (RIA Novosti / Anton Denisov)
TAGS: Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Tennis, Fed Cup
Last year’s runners up, Russia, have experienced few problems in grabbing a 2-0 lead on the opening day of the Fed Cup quarterfinals against Team Spain.
Maria Sharapova was first on court for the hosts in Moscow on Saturday, with the World No.3 making an easy job of dispatching Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
She gave just three games away to her Spanish rival, cruising to a confident straight set victory.
The score stood at 6-2, 6-1 as Sharapova collected her third win in four Fed Cup appearances for her country.
“It is difficult to compete against Sharapova, especially in Russia,” Soler-Espinosa told Sport-Express newspaper. “She is full of confidence after the Australian Open final.”
“I played against a great tennis player,” she added.
Sharapova also found something good to say about Fed Cup debutant, Soler-Espinosa.
“Despite the final score, the match was pretty hard,” she confessed. “My opponent had some good opportunities. In some games, she led 40-15 or even 40-0, but I always managed to prevail, which boosted my confidence.”
Svetlana Kuznetsova took on Carla Suarez Navarro in the second encounter of the day and prevailed after the minimum two sets to win 6-3, 6-1.
Team Russia last lifted the Federation Cup back in 2008. They came close to repeating their success in 2011, but were beaten by the Czech Republic in the Moscow finals.
03.02, 19:03
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Sharapova to open Fed Cup tie against SpainThe GUM shopping center, just a stones throw away from Red Square, was the setting for Fed Cup draw on Friday. It gave the chance for the large crowd to get a glimpse of Russia's top stars including world number three Maria Sharapova. |
05.02, 18:28
5 comments
Kuznetsova finishes off Spain in Fed CupSvetlana Kuznetsova’s has brought Russia’s Fed Cup team the winning point in their home quarterfinal encounter against Spain. |
She looks casually naughty with a racket and balls. Shara will prevail!
Mike,I cannot acpect your definition of sovok .What you describe is a healthy attitude (or a conscious position) which permits one not to feel ashamed of being eg. a Russian (whatever it may mean). It is exactly the attitude which every nation other then Russian has. The word sovok is used by people who try to show *to others* that they are better than the nation they themselves belong(-ed) to & who try to publicly ** disassociate themselves from it**. Mostly for pragmatic (and as a rule pitiful) purpose such as to win insincere pat on the shoulder from Anglo-Saxon friends (insincere because in reality nobody respects such people).And the balance on Soviet past - unfortunately currently the priority is to counter balance the views of several generations of anglo-saxon [...] brought up on Russophobia and hatred of anything Russian/Soviet. They are not bad or stupid it is simply impossible for them to suddenly give up the views & opinions which were fed to them by western propaganda from their early childhood. And these (older) people are in power right now.Eugene (and also Mike) in the previous I used the word patriotism somewhat loosely (for brevity). We are actually saying the same thing.Cheers