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Russia’s best to miss Fed Cup quarter finals
Published: 12 January, 2010, 13:09
Edited: 16 January, 2010, 14:00
Maria Sharapova (RIA Novosti)
TAGS: Sport, Sharapova, Safina, Tennis, Fed Cup
Russia’s Fed Cup squad find themselves in the midst of somewhat of a crisis, seeing their entire contingent of Top 20 players pull out of February's quarter-final clash with Serbia.
World No. 2 Dinara Safina, third-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva, who sits 5th in the world rankings, have all been ruled out, along with Vera Zvonareva, Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova.
Russia captain Shamil Tarpischev blames the busy WTA calendar and injuries for limiting his choices.
“Unfortunately, the first round of the Cup takes place in the period between the Australian Open and a series of major tournaments in the U.S. That’s why our top stars can’t play,” Shamil Tarpishchev told Reuters.
World No. 23, Yelena Vesnina, will now lead the squad. Alisa Kleybanova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Ekaterina Makarova have also been recruited to the team.
This makes Serbia the favorite in the Belgrade matches, with former World No. 1 Jelena Jankovic expected to lead their lineup.
The Russian team has always been among Fed Cup favorites, reaching the final of the tournament eight times and grabbing the crown in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
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1 comment
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Will it be excessive to question the sincerity of top stars sportives. I checked and discovered than the best russian girls tennis players have their residence in Monaco. French tennis players and many others of our main sportives live in Geneva (Switzerland) or in other Suiss cities, to escape high taxes. Some years ago, France won the Davis Cup with a team who did not have a single member (players, coachs doctor etc.) living in France. It was more than surprising to see the russian Fed Cup (with 5 girls in the World top 10) knocked out by Italy. Positively, this stars'selfishness give a chance to the younger players but minimize the Fed Cup and Davis Cup's credibility. Personnally, for equity of statute, as far as my country is concerned, I beleive than a french citizen who sciemment refuse to pay taxes to the country who allowed him to become a champion should not be allowed to represent her in international sports' competition. Naturally, sportives, playing and paid by foreign teams cannot be included... Sincerely...Jean-Claude Meslin