Maria Sharapova (1987- ), Russian tennis star
Shamil Tarpishchev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation and coach of the national tennis team, told VOR that 4 Russian girls out of the 8 hot favourites are capable of winning the gold medal in tennis at the 29th Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. According to Coach Tarpishchev, “The Russian women’s tennis team is in the running for medals in both the singles and doubles competition. Apart from Maria Sharapova, Yelena Dementyeva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Dinara Safina, the Williams sisters,Venus and Serena, and Serbian tennis stars Yelena Yankovic and Anna Ivanova are also capable of winning a gold medal in the singles tennis event.
“The results will hinge on the draw”, Coach Tarpishchev said. “If the situation is favourable, we can expect to win both the single and double gold medals”, he declared, saying that “8 female tennis players are eying the gold medal in the singles category, amongst who are 4 Russians. Three or four double teams, including the Russian pairs of Svetlana Kuznetsova-Dinara Safina and Yelena Vesnina-Vera Zvonareva, and the American, Chinese, and Serbian doubles teams are favourites in claiming the gold medal in women tennis. As for the men, there are three undisputed leaders, Roger Federer of Switzerland, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, and Rafael Nadal of Spain. Practically speaking, Russia doesn’t have a chance because all the male singles players also play in the doubles. The remaining players, about 20 of them, are almost equal in standards of play. But, there is always a chance… we will play!”
He mentioned that some of the Russian female players are competing in the Montréal tournament at present, from whence they will depart for the Beijing 2008 Olympics on 3 August. He described the tennis routine at the Olympics as complicated, meaning that competitors entered for both the singles and doubles events will have to play two matches in a day. Specifically, that was why Coach Tarpishchev took Maria Sharapova’s name out of the running for the honour of bearing the Russian colours during the march-past at the opening ceremony of the Games. There is unprecedented interest in tennis and other events in the Beijing Olympics and it explains why all the tickets are sold out. According to the organisers of the Beijing Games, some 6.8 million tickets were printed and the most expensive were for the opening ceremony at 645 dollars (15,120 roubles. 414 euros. 325 UK pounds) per ticket. Cost of tickets to 60 percent of the events is not more than 13 dollars (305 roubles. 8.35 euros. 6.56 UK pounds).
30 July 2008
Yelena Studneva
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=78580&cid=25&p=30.07.2008 (in Russian)
