Russia’s No.1 tennis tournament – the Kremlin Cup – starts on Saturday, featuring a moderately strong men’s draw and a women’s line-up that’s as strong than as many Grand Slam tournaments and inferior only to the seasons

Many of the world's top players have already arrived in Moscow to have time to prepare for the tournament at the Olympisky Arena. Their number includes Amelie Mauresmo, who got all the way to the final back in 2003 when she lost to home favourite Anastasia Myskina.

The former world number one has been dealing with injuries over the last couple of years, but it looks like she is ready to make an impact in the Russian capital.

“I'm definitely feeling good physically. That's a big point for me, because I've been struggling for the past year with injuries, so it's important for me to feel good, to move good around the court. I'd like to go all the way in this tournament, but we have a tough draw in here, with a lot of great players,” Mauresmo admitted.

Two of the big names who'll be missing are current world no.1 and last year's finalist Serena Williams has an ankle injury sustained this week in Stuttgart, while world no.6 Maria Sharapova will be out for the remainder of the year due to an injured shoulder.

Russian contenders look strong

The men's competition is less star studded when it comes to the big names. But one person who's sure to inspire support is world number six and the winner of three Kremlin Cups including the last two, Nikolay Davydenko.

In 2007 the 27-year-old claimed victory against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu. The Russian was full of confidence training in the Olimpisky, obviously intent on keeping the trophy in it's home country.

“I don't like playing against Russians on the early stages. It's always a bit of a disappointmentl, as we can win some matches and meet in semi-final or final, that's what I hope for. Not like last time, when I played with Marat [Safin] in the first round,” he said.

Davydenko’s fellow countrymen Dmitry Tursunov, Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev, Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn will be trying to accomplish a similar mission, along with a host of their female compatriots.

“I want to step into tournament and feel comfortable – 100%. I lost two days ago in Stuttgart, it's bad by itself, but on the other hand offers a good opportunity to better prepare on this surface and be ready. Still I'm a little tired, but I hope to recover in a few days. I'll do my best to play well here,” promised world no. 7, Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Media tournament

Tennis-playing media

Earlier, in the weekend prior to the tournament, 32 players from the country’s leading media outlets played in their own version of the Kremlin Cup.

Two commentators from NTV+ Tennis predictably decided the fate of the trophy in the final. RT's men were both out by the second round.

Tournament history

Russia’s biggest tennis tournament started in 1990…

“By the end of the 1980s many countries’ tennis had made significant steps forward, while we were static or even declining,” recalls head of Russian tennis, Shamil Tarpischev. “Children in the schools had never even heard about tennis, and most of them ended up in other sports classes. We desperately needed a tournament to start in order to develop tennis in Russia.”

At that time Sasson Kakshuri, a millionaire carpet manufacturer with an Indian-Jewish-Iranian background based in Switzerland, was eager to open an ATP event in Moscow, but his initial efforts were blocked by the Soviet government.

In the summer of 1989 the inceptionn of the Kremlin Cup was on the agenda of a Politburo session but was flatly vetoed, being judged ‘untimely’. Rumours are, however, that the conservative Soviet official, Yegor Ligachev, labelled Kakshuri ‘an enemy of the USSR’, for attempting to besmirch the name ‘Kremlin’.

Nonetheless, during his time in Moscow, Kakshuri made some connections among influential tennis enthusiasts. Eventually they arranged a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, who overrode the Politburo decision.

The first years of the Kremlin Cup were not a commercial success.

Having no sponsors, with not only the prize money to pay, but also royalties for star players to show up at the tournament, Kakshuri reportedly lost about $US 1 million on each tournament. His only sources of income were not particularly high – cheap broadcasting rights (about $US 60,000) and extremely cheap tickets, as Russian tennis fans couldm't to pay much in the early years of a transition economy.

Kakshuri tried to change this, but eventually got tired of the money-consuming event and agreed to pass its rights to a structure controlled by Russia’s key tennis man Shamil Tarpischev and the tournament has since gone from strength to strength.

Ruben Zarbabyan, RT