Like any thing in Fed Cup, the seesaw developments
began way before the teams for the semifinals were officially announced.
The ITF tells its member nations that its captains must name their teams
during the second week of Wimbledon, so the United States and Russia listed
four players each, even though US captain Zina Garrison and Russian captain
Shamil Tarpishchev knew that it was probable that some of the players
would drop out.
A month before the teams were announced, American Meilen Tu said she deserved
a spot on her team due to her Top-40 ranking. At the time, she was more
than 30 spots above teenager Vania King, who has been in a slump all year.
A month after that declaration, Garrison named her team, which included
King, the Williams sisters and Lisa Raymond. The day that that occurred,
Tu (along with Jill Craybas and Laura Granville) complained again, saying
that Garrison never even bothered to call her and she never even met her.
But on Tuesday, as expected, Serena Williams (who has never played a full year
of Fed Cup) pulled out with the thumb injury she sustained at Wimbledon
and Tu was on the first plane to Stowe, Vt., where on Thursday she
sang Garrisons praises, saying she was a great coach. Go figure.
SHARAPOVA: DOES SHE REALLY WANT TO PLAY FOR THE MOTHERLAND? The Russian tale goes deeper and is a lot more bizarre. On the day that
Maria Sharapova was facing Venus Williams in the fourth round of Wimbledon,
the Sharapova camp got a call in the middle of the match from the Russian
Federation, asking whether they could name Maria to the team that day
because their injured players were dropping like flies and they needed
a big name on the list. Captain Tarpishchev and his assistant, Alexander
Volkov, knew that the hobbled Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova were
doubtful for the team too, (Petrova complained that Tarpishchev was a
poor communicator), but put them on the team anyway.
Sharapova had never indicated that she would play the tie and had said
time and time again that her sore shoulder wasn’t up to it.
Nonetheless, she told the federation it was okay to put her on the list,
but cautioned that if her doctors told her that her shoulder needed further
rest, she would pull out.
Sharapova suspected that would be the case and it was, so she withdrew.
But her willingness to let the federation use her name cost her, as Russian
tennis industry folks scalded her in the Russian press and in a wire story,
with some coaches saying that she has never meant to play for Russia in
the first place.
"I'm telling you, just forget about all these promises," Russia's
chief tennis coach Vladimir Kamelzon told Izvestia. "Her closest
advisers are Americans and they would never allow her to play for Russia,"
he said.
That’s an absurd comment, given that it was Maria’s nationalistic
father, Yuri, who helped convinced her to play for Russia, when she could
have easily decided to apply for US citizenship and play for the US,
where she has lived for the past 13 years.
Moreover, Sharapova went out of her way to appease her Russian fans after
she pulled out, approving a quote on her web site that said something
to the effect of "there would have been nothing more satisfying that
to beat the Americans on their own soil."
But here are some comments, which may chase and angry Sharapova away from
Fed Cup forever. A Russian tennis federation source told Reuters, "It
just shows where her real interests are. So for many of us, her decision
not to play Fed Cup didn't come as a big surprise. Once again she said
she'd play, only to turn her back on the team at the last minute. It just
shows where her real interests are. It just sounds all too familiar, doesn't
it? When it was time to play Fed Cup, [ANNA] Kournikova would always come
up with some injury. So after a while we just forgot about her. But we
have many good, talented young players besides Sharapova who are able
and willing to play for Russia."
Given that Tarpishchev runs the ship, you would have to think he was aware
of these comments and possibly approved them. Here’s an educated
guess: Yuri and Maria are going to think they were set up and it’s
going to take a monumental effort by Tarpishchev, Volkov and who ever
else was involved to convince her to play for the team in the future.
Certainly, she should make an effort, because it’s going to look
very bad if she grabs her highly-desired Olympic spot, but she’s
stubborn and has a long memory.
But, if Sharapova was embarrassed, it’s nothing compared with what
Tarpishchev went through, as he was denied a US visa until Thursday.
The captain endlessly ripped into the US State Department, going so
far to tell Reuters, "The Americans always like to talk about
human rights and democracy but they are the first ones to deny others
the same rights.” However, what was under covered in the tennis
press for years is he’s been linked with the Russian underworld,
which is why his visa was red-flagged. He denies the connection, but still
went out on a half-broken limb –criticizing US democracy – while his big
boss, Vladimir Putin, appears to be is doing all he can to quash democracy
in his nation and turn it back into a dictatorship.
But that’s a story for another day and eventually, the czar of Russian
tennis got his visa. But while he was complaining and threatening the
ITF with a request to move the tie to a neutral site, Kuznetsova dropped
out. Fortunately for Russia, Petrova changed her mind and decided to play
so now the Russians will have Top-10 players: Petrova and Anna Chakvetadze,
backed by Elena Vesnina and Alla Kudryavtseva, to go up against Mt. Venus,
either King or Tu in singles and Raymond in doubles. It looks like Venus
will have to win three matches for the home team to advance.
The other semifinal between Italy and France has a degree of intrigue,
too.
Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli refused to play because her father and
coach Walter wouldn’t be allowed to tutor her during the tie, a
common rule amongst teams. Fed Cup captain Georges Goven said Friday that
there was “no way she was going to play anywhere." Amelie Mauresmo
will face Francesca Schiavone and Tatiana Golovin will play Tathiana Garbin
in singles on Saturday.
