Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia plays in the Kremlin Cup 2006 tennis tournament in the Olympic Stadium, Moscow.
Photo: Ilya Pitalev
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Not of Age
Four Russians, Elena Likhovtseva, Ekaterina Bychkova, Vera Zvonareva and Anastasia Rodionova, advanced Monday to the second round in the women’s section of the Kremlin Cup 2006 tennis tournament held in the Olympic Stadium, Moscow. World best junior, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Elena Bovina, who came back after a lengthy break, yielded to opponents.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 15, who won the Australian Open and U.S. Open junior tournaments not long ago, rarely competes with the grown-ups. Anastasia wasn’t very lucky with the drawing in Moscow and faced the world No. 11 Nicole Vaidisova of Czechia already in the first round.
The game was equal only at the beginning. It looked as if Vaidisova needed to get accustomed to the court of the Moscow stadium. But she got aggressive once Pavlyuchenkova broke in the fifth game, making clear the grown-ups don’t play tennis of juniors.
For Elena Bovina, it was the first match after a year’s break. Bovina, who had been once thought equal to Dinara Safina and Nadezhda Petrova, yielded to Shahar Peer yesterday.
For the Russians, one more loss was inevitable. Vera Zvonareva ended the Kremlin Cup hopes of her compatriot Vera Dushevina. Today’s rival of Zvonareva is much more dangerous. It is Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. Other favorites of the Kremlin Cup, Maria Sharapova and Elena Dementieva, join the battle also on Tuesday.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 10, 2006
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