Russians Hold Seat
The Russian girls advanced en route to the next year’s Fed Cup battle, having defeated the team of Croatia in the play-off tennis matches in Umag, Croatia. But the victory was far from easy the 3-0 lead notwithstanding.
For Russian captain, Shamil Tarpishchev, there were quite a few causes for apprehension before the play-off. First of all, the girls were playing in Croatia, second, they started training much later than opponents. But the real flaw of the team was that the absence of Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Myskina, Dinara Safina and Nadezhda Petrova led to the lack of aggregate experience of players, the more so that the team had two debutants at once - Anna Chakvetadze and Elena Vesnina.
Anna Chakvetadze opened the battle. Chakvetadze, who is rated the 31st, was facing the number 106 Ivana Lisjak. Anna was obviously better and obviously lacking stability. Regardless, Chakvetadze managed to win the crucial first score (7-6 7-6), making the task much easier for the Russians. Just because it was Elena Dementieva who played No. 274 Sanja Ancic in the second match (6-3 7-5) of that day.
In hope for a breakthrough, the Croatians staked on the team’s leader Karolina Sprem, who was suffering from the elbow injury. But the hopes of the hosts weren’t justified, as Dementieva played as a real leader again (6-1 6-3).
In other play-off tennis matches, France overwhelmed Czechia, China saw off Germany and Japan defeated Austria. Italy will face Belgium in this year’s Fed Cup final.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 17, 2006
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