New Top Woman Comes out of Indian Wells
Vera Zvonareva's defeat of Maria Sharapova is the biggest news to come out of Indian Wells so far. As a result of that match, Sharapova will give up her title of top WTA player in the world next Monday to Justine Henin, since Sharapova had to proceed to the semifinals to keep her title. After the game, which went progressively worse as she played, Sharapova said that something strange had happened to her.
Sharapova accepted her fate gracefully, however, joking that a group of scantily clad young men distracted her with her loud support.
Zvonareva went on to lose to Chinese tennis player Na Li. If she had won, Zvonareva would have set a record for the best performance at Indian Wells, and that without even completing the quarterfinals.
Nadezhda Petrova is also out of the running after an injury prevented her from completing her game against Tatyana Golovin. Anna Chakvetadze was beaten by Israeli Shahar Peer.
More pleasant for fans of Russian tennis is the fact that Svetlana Kuznetsova overcame Ai Sugiyama in the quarterfinals. Now she is the main Russian contender for triumph in the tournament. She faces Czech Nicole Vaidisova in her next match.
In the men's tournament, things were calmer. Spanish favorite Rafael Nadal easily overcame Juan Carlos Ferrero and American Andy Roddick beat Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 15, 2007
|
