Svetlana Kuznetsova (R) and her fellow Russian team players have a wonderful opportunity to make Shamil Tarpishchev (L) a five-time champion-captain.
Photo: Alexey Kudenko
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Tug-of-Award
// Russian tennis players will meet last year’s Fed Cup winners
The Fed Cup final match starts in Moscow today. Russian team faces last year’s winner Italian team. However, Russia is the final’s favorite. If it wins, it will be its third victory in the last four years. The only obstacle the Russians might encounter is the amazing luck of Italian team. Italy managed to reach the final match twice in the last two years without having any top-level players in the team.
Russia’s national team won the Federation Cup twice: in 2004 and 2005. Russians face Italians in the tournament’s final match in Moscow today. Russian team is the favorite. First, because it is playing at home, and so it had the right to choose court surface. Russians chose hard surface, while Italians feel more confident on clay.
Second, Russian team has never lost to Italy, and they have met thrice. Finally, world’s second Svetlana Kuznetsova and world’s fifth Anna Chakvetadze are to play against Francesca Schiavone (number 25) and Mara Santangelo (number 34).
Everything looks like the winner will become known after three matches out of five. However, Russian team’s Captain Shamil Tarpishchev said the game will be difficult. In fact, Italian team is amazingly lucky.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 15, 2007
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