Anna Chakvetadze (photo) might deprive the favorite of the Antwerp tournament Amelie Mauresmo not only of money, but also of diamonds.
Photo: AP
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Anna Chakvetadze will play against the diamond racket
// Tennis
Russian tennis player Anna Chakvetadze won her way into the semifinal of a large tournament in Antwerp. She defeated her compatriot Nadezhda Petrova. Now Chakvetadze is to play against Amelie Mauresmo, the tournament’s first racket.
Anna Chakvetadze is a very inconvenient rival for Nadezhda Petrova. Despite that she has greater experience, strength, height, and speed, Petrova never managed to outplay Chakvetadze. The latter yesterday defeated Petrova easily, thanks to her playing style being varied and clever. Apparently, Petrova is not displaying her advantages very well now. In her previous game, against Vera Zvonareva, she obviously had difficulty in winning. It is rather strange, considering that Petrova won a tournament in Paris last Sunday.
The current tournament’s first racket Amelie Mauresmo will be Chakvetadze’s next rival. They have met twice before, and the French player won both times. It is Mauresmo who is considered the favorite in the upcoming semifinal. She did not play very confidently at the tournament’s beginning, spending half an hour on the world’s 75th racket Virginie Razzano. However, yesterday she played well against Dinara Safina, while the latter was very nervous, and, like her brother Marat Safin often says, Dinara is making too many mistakes when she is nervous. No wonder that Safina won only four games in the entire match.
Mauresmo is a serious rival for Chakvetadze, especially due to the French player’s extra motivation for winning. The matter is that winning this tournament will bring Mauresmo not only money, but also a racket richly inlaid with diamonds. The tournament’s sponsors decided to give the racket to the player who wins thrice in five years the Antwerp competition. Mauresmo has already won twice.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 17, 2007
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