Shamil Tarpishchev, the first captain to guide his country to both Fed and Davis Cup titles more than once, has had visa problems going on for the past decade.
Photo: Mikhail Razuvaev
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Tarpishchev Wants Fed Cup Tie Moved to Neutral Venue
Russia’s tennis chief Shamil Tarpishchev has asked the International Tennis Federation to move this weekend’s Fed Cup semi-final against the United States to a neutral country after a delay in his U.S. visa. The Russian national team earlier left for the United States last week without Mr. Tarpishchev.
“The ITF regulations say that Fed Cup host countries must issue visas to all members of the visiting team at least five years prior to the match,” Russian tennis coach Shamil Tarpishchev said. “I applied for the visa beforehand, but I haven’t got any reply from the U.S. embassy yet.” Mr. Tarpishchev added that he had already sent a complaint to the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee.
The International Tennis Federation says it is taking steps to break the deadlock. “However, the visa issue is a prerogative of the U.S. Department of State, and we cannot influence their work in any way,” a spokesperson for the ITF told Kommersant.
Shamil Tarpishchev, who is also a member of the IOC, was hoping to fly to the United States from Guatemala where Olympic officials chose Sochi last week to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Instead, he head to fly back to Moscow and wait for the visa. The Russian women’s team went to the United States last week without any other.
The U.S. Embassy to Russia says Mr. Tarpishchev’s application was being processed by authorities in Washington.
Shamil Tarpishchev, the first captain to guide his country to both Fed and Davis Cup titles more than once, has had visa problems going on for the past decade. In 1996, he got a restricted visa for the Atlanta Olympics. Six years later, a visa delay scrapped his plans to go to the IOC assembly in Salt Lake City.
Shamil Tarpishchev says he thinks he may be on “some sort of black list.” “U.S. authorities have been targeting me for the past 10 years without any proof of any wrongdoing on my part,” he said. “Just imagine what would happen if Russia had denied a visa to a U.S. captain, it would have been a huge international scandal.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 11, 2007
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