Nov 19, carried on sovsport.ru, Shamil addressed something I'd wondered about. This is one of those things we never hear a word about in the Western sports press:

Andrey Golubev, Mikhail Kukushkin, Yuri Shchukin, Yaroslav Shvedova and Galina Voskoboeva. What does unite these players of the third echelon of Russian teams? By year-end all these tennis-players began to represent Kazakhstan. In this case Golubev reached the final of the tournament in Saint Petersburg, and Voskoboeva for the first time completed the year in the top 100 of WTA rating. Not alas what reaching, but nevertheless… Suppose that suddenly in a couple of years a number of these athletes will catch fire--new stars?

SHAMIL TARPISCHEV:

“This draining of our tennis-players into Kazakhstan (was a) forced measure. We simply cannot finance them! Here, for example, Golubev. The fellow for almost five years was trained in Italy, now at 21 years, he was full of forces and energy and… was ready to complete career. The same also with Kukushkin. They do not have money that is normal for training... a minimum of 200,000 Euros per year - to the trainers, the masseurs, the overflights and the stay! To earn such prize money, when located in second hundred of rankings, is unreal...

“Here we concluded: contract with Kazakhstan. There now they relate completely seriously to tennis. Even the President of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is fascinated by it - I played with him recently. He’s not a bad tennis-player, growing better technically…

“So there, for the development of tennis in the country, decent money is put aside--in 5 years they must construct 15 tennis centers - more than 100 covered courts! But the presence of stars, even not of the top rank, whip up the children's sport. And for the tennis-players themselves it will be more comfortable--it is not necessary to think about where to find money for the next airline ticket. But if suddenly they rise into the elite, they can return to Russia if they want. True, no earlier than in three years…” (presumably the contracted period.)

Britain’s Elena Baltacha was powerless to prevent Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova from securing a place in the main draw of Roland Garros 2009. The 6-2 6-2 scoreline is further proof of a return to form for Shvedova, who was twice a junior finalist here in Paris and lived in the city for two years as a child.

Shvedova first qualified for the main draw in 2007 and the significance of her repeat performance was evident for all to see in her beaming post-match smile.

Steelier temperament

"I’m reproducing the form I’ve been showing in practice. Since I qualified for Rome I’ve been feeling just great and playing without pressure. To top it all, I’m learning to enjoy the clay," said the player who is currently ranked No96 in the world.

"She has changed her attitude along with her game. Provided she manages to keep on playing freely, she’ll get there," commented Tomasz Iwanski, who has been her coach since last November. Iwanski doubles up as Kazakhstan’s Fed Cup captain when not accompanying Shvedova on tour and describes his protegee as "ambitious". Such confidence is far from unfounded if today’s performance is anything to go by...

Messages of support

“Ambitious” could also be used to describe Yaroslava’s decision to change nationalities last August. "She wanted to play in a national team, and that would have been difficult in Russia," says Iwanski. "It was also the chance to play in the Olympic Games," adds Yaroslava, who shows her affection for her adopted nation by proudly wearing a green and yellow bracelet on her left wrist.

"I live in Moscow but I often go to Kazakhstan because I feel good there and the conditions are excellent. The people like me and I get lots of encouragement on Facebook. I’ve got many friends there, "she explains fondly.

We know when Italian channel SuperTennis has been showing Palermo. Play starts daily at 14:00 GMT, but the broadcast begins with the 2nd match on Centre Court Not Before 16:30 GMT. Palermo plays under the lights, so they show the 3rd match as well.

So, unless they begin early with a 14:00 broadcast, we may not get to see Shvedova on Friday. Glad I caught her Thursday.

 http://free-tv.dk/tennis.html 

fromsport has a Supertennis link http://www.fromsport.com/video-43112.html and atdhe http://www.atdhe.net/7921/watch-wta-palermo .

Friday, July 17, 2009

Centre Court (from 16.00hrs) (14:00 GMT)
1. Errani vs. Shvedova

USO 2009: I'm bringing this one back up again as it continues the saga of Yaroslava Shvedova. Consider: I've all the sympathy in the world for JJ's loss, but a contradiction stands out. Today when Jesse Levine briefly got a leg up on Cilic & the commentators were ing what was wrong with the Croat, they concluded that it was what Levine's game was doing to him.

But here, it's turned into Jankovic's failure was solely about her family tragedy--Yaroslava's fine play had nothing to do with it? About all Bard Gilbert did was crack Borat jokes.

Typical commentariat bullsh!t.I taped & reviewed as much of the match as was broadcast. Yaroslava played excellent tennis. But according to the Western mouthpieces, she is a "late-bloomer" (25) who plays for that silly "Borat" country so you should dismiss her.

Screw them. I will keep on beating this drum as more & more Russian Kazakhstanis & the new Kazakh players rise. [H]

The complex is rooted in the bowels of State. Look it over--any player from a country that doesn't toe DC's line (except China) is either ignored or subject to ridicule. All things Russia & her friends at the top of the sh!t-list.

Kazakhstan is a large nation with great resources.  Historically, they are joined at the hip with Russia. The Muslim Kazakhs are a slight majority, but the state is secular & multi-ethnic with a huge Russian component. So the Russian Kazakhstani tennis players from Moscow are not at all unique. The President of the country is a sometimes tennis partner of Shamil Tarpischev.

The program is only about a year along now but it is bearing fruit both for Russian players like Yaroslava & for the Kazakhs.

A young Kazakh player named Zarina Diyas made a quite presentable debut at ECM Prague Open in July.

Zarina Diyas

 Kazakhstan has won the Asian Hopman Cup play-off in Astana. Twenty-four hours after its conclusion, one must go to Kazakhstani fans "on the ground", as it were, to get the results of an ITF FINAL! Bizarre. Do not even tell me this meet's play & results were not suppressed!

That aside, there are already a lotta quips about the Kazakhstan International Team as the "Russia B-team" & so forth. I understand that, but it's to ignore the fact that all this is setting up a profile, not just for Hopman Cup itself, but for Kazakhstan to appear as a major force in next year's Olympic Asiad (Nov in Guangzhou)-- where neither Russia nor Australia are involved.

                                              Yaroslava Shvedova & Andrey Golubev

Anyway:  Congrats, Kazakhstan!!! Looking forward to watching the Lenochka vs Yaroslava match in Perth on January 6th.

  One is gratified to discover that Russian media were not limited by the Astana news blackout. [Y]

On Sunday the day after the Asian final, GoTennis.ru posted the story: Team of Kazakhstan in the composition of Shvedova/Golubev will play for the Goblet of Hopman GoTennis.ru | 15.11.2009

http://www.gotennis.ru/news/?p=30913 

Interesting to note the text specifies: Об этом сообщают казахстанские СМИ. "Kazakhstan media outlets report about this." -- They took their copy direct from Kazakh sources while global sports media, incuding the HC site itself, delayed for days.

 Sportbox.ru 14:19 -- Korolev will represent Kazakhstan

Muscovite Eugene Korolev will from now on represent Kazakhstan.

As described by the President of the Russian tennis federation Shamil Tarpischev, the Kazakh federation proposed extremely advantageous financial conditions, which make it possible to conduct improved qualitative preparation to the 21- summer tennis-player.

"My reaction to this change is negative," says Tarpischev in “Sport-Express”. "However, when to a player they propose a deal that our federation cannot, it is difficult for us to dispute.

Let us recall that earlier began to represent that the ex-Russians Andrey Golubev, Mikhail Kukushkin, Yaroslava Shvedova, Galina Voskoboeva, and also Sesil Karatancheva from Bulgaria. Golubev and Shvedova beating Igor Andreev and Elena Dementieva within the framework of the team tournament Hopman Cup.

(That was 2-1, Elena defeated Yaroslava in singles, but Golubev beat Andreev in singles & the Kazakhstanis won the mixed doubles.)
 

 Yaroslava has not done so well at the Asia/Oceania Zonal event.

  Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan returns a shot to Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan during their tennis match at the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania zone in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010.

No doubt Chinese Taipei was still smarting from the loss at Asian Hopman Cup in Astana. This is Round Robin play so, if Kazakhstan pull out their matches with Uzbekistan tomorrow, I guess they're still in the running. Sesil Karatantcheva, the Bulgar who had some WADA trouble before she took the Kazakhstan Contract, is pulling her weight just fine. Zarina Diyas, Kazakh ingenue, hasn't yet gotten to play.

Chinese Taipei defeated Kazakhstan 2-1 in Malaysia
R1 - S.KARATANTCHEVA (KAZ) def. K.CHANG (TPE) 6-4  6-3
R2 - Y.CHAN (TPE) def. Y.SHVEDOVA (KAZ) 6-3  6-4
R3 - C.CHUANG / S.HSIEH (TPE) def. Y.SHVEDOVA / G.VOSKOBOEVA (KAZ) 6-3  2-6  7-6(6)

Kazakhstan defeated Thailand 2-1 in Malaysia
R1 - S.KARATANTCHEVA (KAZ) def. S.VIRATPRASERT (THA) 6-4  6-2
R2 - T.TANASUGARN (THA) def. Y.SHVEDOVA (KAZ) 6-3  6-3
R3 - Y.SHVEDOVA / G.VOSKOBOEVA (KAZ) def. T.TANASUGARN / V.WONGTEANCHAI (THA) 6-3  6-4