POSSIBLE TO WATCH 'SLAVA & VANIA ON WEDNESDAY! [:)]

LSH Wednesday (06 October) GMT
07:00  Kirilenko - Zvonareva (WTA Beijing)
08:30  Wozniacki - Errani (WTA Beijing)
11:30  Djokovic - Fish (ATP Beijing)
11:30  Schiavone - Dushevina (WTA Beijing)

(EXTRA: Open any CHINESE portals to Djoko-Fish late in the match. The SINA stream WILL SHOW the Shvedova/King v Krumm/Peng doubles that will follow on Lotus Court.) [8-|]

http://www.livescorehunt...es/Livescore-Tennis.html

OR GO DIRECTLY TO SINA: Thanx to Wildhope for http://live.video.sina.com.cn/room/tennis  This requires a little tinkering. If you can reset the bar at the bottom just slightly back from the right end, the stream won't stall. Otherwise, you gotta refresh.

 CCTV5--YOU MIGHT ALSO CHECK:
WMP:
mms://222.77.190.24/cctv5    
http://www.myp2p.eu/comp...sports&discipline=tennis 

 For the Glorious Nation! The Russian kontraktniki (firstly Golubev & Kukushkin) won Kazakhstan's debut in Davis Cup World Group.  

Yaroslava Shvedova, recovered from surgery, has a tough draw at Indian Wells.  First she must contend with Kimiko Date-Krumm--who ain't your grand-dad's "40". Then in 2nd round, must dismiss resurgent Ivanovic.

Nonetheless, ДАВАЙ 'Slava!!!  

 For the Glorious Nation! At Fès, kontraktnika Yaroslava Shvedova soundly defeated strong Romanian upcomer Irina-Camelia Begu in straight sets. As commented on recently, this represents serious play.

Unfortunately, 'Slava must next play Pivovarova. 

Nonetheless, ДАВАЙ!!!  The match is on Court Mohamed M'Jid  and thus streamed.

GP de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem at Fès, Morocco. Streams at LSH & fromsport. 

BEST STREAM: fromsport wii arryadia 3 broadcast : http://www.fromsportcom.com/v-2/4/56/v-245628.html (Also thru LSH)

 For the Glorious Nation!

CitiOpen at College Park MD (DC area), Sania Mirza and Yaroslava Shvedova captured their first WTA doubles title as a team.

('Slava isn't playing San Diego. In the Mercury doubles, Mirza will pair with Elena Vesnina.)

ДАВАЙ 'Slava & Sania!!!  

Probably should note on this thread as well, thoughts raised by:

  ITF tournament in Astana. Diatchenko has won the competition in singles and doubles July 30, 2011, 18:35 M. Petrov 

Rossiyanka Vitalia Diatchenko has made significant achievements in a major ITF tennis tournament in Astana. Russian athlete managed to become a winner in both singles and doubles.

Astana, Kazakhstan

http://www.sovsport.ru/news/text-item/471366  

Vitalia's profile in Astana. including the doubles win with kontraktnika Voskoboeva, fuels speculation. Might Diatchenko, lately training in Ireland, consider an offer to sign on to the Kazakhstan Kontrakt? 

 Among other opportunistic moves, The Yanks have seized upon the rain to move 'Slava & Vania from Court 17 to totally media-dark Court 13 & shove the USO defending champions to the bottom of the lineup--so they can sit there all day tomorrow & probably into the next.

How can anyone doubt what is going on there? 

 For the Glorious Nation! For the kontraktniki! 

Yaroslava & Vania will defend their USO doubles title against Americans Huber & Raymond on Sunday--I believe at about 13:00 EDT. In the States, the match is broadcast on ESPN2.

By now, that this tournament is totally stitched up should be obvious to any discerning eye. Still, much to the distress of USTA, King & Shvedova are crowd favorites. There is a limit to the degree they can attempt to mechanic the outcome.

Davaiii!!! 

Originally Posted by: CROUCHING TIGER

I really hope to see that flag on sunday; at least "something" would be saved in this "titanesk mess"...DAVAI

Dunno much about Huber as a personality. Like many immigrants, she is probably more patriotic (in a real sense) than most of the native-born. But the key is Raymond and Lisa is a stand-up gal. She'll fight to win, sure, but she won't condone a stitch-up--including this cold war shit. She demonstrated that in 2007 Fed Cup.

Then, there is the whole Vania thing. "Mutt & Jeff" 'Slava & Vania prove to be HUGE crowd-pleasers. Much as USTA would like to whip up animus against them, they don't dare. Go that way & the federation's equivocal record toward King might be exposed--and certainly interpreted as racial.

Couple that with the necessity for Huber & Raymond to pick on Vania. (Slight thigh problem, plus she is the weaker server.) It only makes sense for any serious contender. So they sure as hell can't afford ideological stink on it. The crowd could turn on the "real Americans".

The Huber-Raymond team DID look sharp yesterday and they are arguably the best women doubles specialists in the world. This is no easy task. However, that also speaks to a limitation. The specialists still tend to engage in a rather stylized play vulnerable to innovation. And even after a year dealing with them, few have figured out the thing 'Slava & Vania have going on.  

ДАВАЙ!!!

I'm beginning to get a little edgy here. It's now looking like Tennis Channel is avoiding their posted schedule & even on-screen ujpcoming announcements to ditch showing the women's doubles final replay. We will see. If so, I have the first & second sets on tape but must somehow find the third online.

(Update: TTC IS showing it now--a hour late & their digital TV schedule is totally screwed.)

Incident where Hubert hit 'Slava's bad leg with a return: Virginia Wade commentating, rushed to blame Shvedova for getting hit! "She should have gotten out of the way."  I tell you, Russia-hating limeys are actually worse with that shit than the Yanks!

I'll need to review 2nd set on tape again. There is an issue early in the 2nd set tiebreak. Lynn Welch sorted it out as best she could but it worked against King/Shvedova & MIGHT have been some of that "accidental-on purpose" confusion generated by a line judge.

In post match interview, Lisa Raymond (an honest woman) referenced the second set rain delay as "by the grace of God" because she & Huber conferred & changed up things afterwards. So that IS a factor. But I don't think a defining one. The missed opportunities to close came later.

Generally, credit must be given to Raymond--far more critical to their win than her partner.

Raymond further expressed as sense of superiority attached to their age & experience. Liezel Huber rather irked me by copping to a motivation of envy--clearly she had the ass when she & Petrova lost to King/Shvedova last year. 

Vania & Slava Complete Istanbul Doubles Field

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova have secured the final spot in the doubles field of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, to be hosted at the state of the art Sinan Erdem Arena in one week.

King and Shvedova join Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik, Liezel Huber & Lisa Raymond and Gisela Dulko & Flavia Pennetta in the four-team draw.

"I'd like to congratulate Vania and Yaroslava on qualifying for the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. They came very close to winning their third Grand Slam doubles title at the US Open, and it will be great to see them back for the second successive year," said Stacey Allaster, Chairman & CEO of the WTA.

"We are very excited and proud to be going to the Championships for the second time," King commented. "We didn't think at the beginning of the year that we would be in this position but we've had a very solid season and hopefully cemented ourselves at the top. We know that we still have to work hard and improve, and we hope that we can go far in the Championships."

King and Shvedova started playing together in June 2010 and following back-to-back Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and the US Open qualified for their first Championships last year. Their 2011 season has been highlighted by their third WTA title in Cincinnati and three more finals (including the US Open).

The WTA's year-end finale will feature the Top 8 singles players and Top 4 doubles teams competing for the coveted title and a share of $5 million in prize money. The WTA and Turkish Tennis Federation's goal is to deliver the best finale in history to fans of women's tennis in Turkey and all over the world.

'Slava & Partner Vania blog from Istanbul & about Moscow 

http://www.wtatennis.com...ednesday_2257191_2495620 

Send your questions in for Slava & Vania by clicking here or you can write to them on their Twitter pages (Vania here and Slava here)!