Chronicle

Sharapova will return to the court in January

Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova, who was forced to end the current season early due to a shoulder injury, plans to return to the court in January. The 21-year-old athlete is currently undergoing a rehabilitation course with renowned physiotherapist Brett Fischer in Phoenix, US. If everything goes well, Sharapova plans to take part in an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, which will be held in the second week of January. After which she will focus on preparing for the Australian Open, which she won this season.

According to the athlete's agent Max Eisenbud, problems with Sharapova's right shoulder began in 2006. The rotator cuff injury went undetected for months until it became a serious concern this year. Maria continued to play, her first serve was little affected by the injury, but her second serve was greatly affected, as evidenced by the double fault statistics. For example, in a duel with Evgenia Rodina at Roland Garros 2008, the former first racket of the world failed to put the ball into play 17 times.

“Maria decided not to go on the court until her shoulder is completely healed. She is no longer going to play through pain,” said the tennis player’s agent. Let us remind you that Sharapova has not performed since August. Due to injury, she withdrew from the Olympics and the US Open.

Safin will miss the Davis Cup semi-finals

Russian Marat Safin, previously announced for the Davis Cup semifinals with the Argentina national team, will miss this team tournament. According to information posted on the tennis player's website, Marat needs to protect his points before the end of the season, and he believes that the trip from Buenos Aires to the tournament in Bangkok will be long and tiring for him. The tennis player has already informed the captain of the Russian team Shamil Tarpishchev about his decision, and he agreed. Safin is currently training in Moscow with Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The other day, the athlete’s coach, Argentinean Hernan Gumi, will fly to Russia, with whom they will fly to Bangkok on September 21.

Petrova did not reach the final in Bali

Nadezhda Petrova lost in the semi-finals of the tournament in Bali, losing to Swiss Pati Schnyder - 5:7, 1:6. If in the first set the fight was on equal terms, then in the second the Russian woman was unable to do anything to oppose the “offender”. Before this, the tennis players met each other 11 times, and in five matches the Russian woman celebrated victory. By the way, it was Schnyder who won the tournament in Bali at the end of the season. In the decisive round, she easily defeated Australian tennis player Tamira Pashek - 6:3, 6:0.

At the men's tournament, held simultaneously in Bucharest, the Frenchman Gilles Simon celebrated his victory, defeating the Spaniard Carlos Moya in two games - 6:3, 6:4.

Contador won stage 13 of the Vuelta

The next, 13th stage of the Vuelta cycling race was won by Spaniard Alberto Contador from Astana. At 42 sec. he was ahead of compatriot Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d'Eparn. The best of the Russians, Dmitry Kozonchuk from Rabobank, finished 35th, nine minutes behind the winner. After 13 stages, Contador took the lead, 1.07 ahead of American teammate Levi Leipheimer. “When the leader and the team are on such a course, it is difficult to allow a misfire,” the All Sport agency quotes the words of Astana sports director Vyacheslav Ekimov. “Only those whom we agreed to let go could leave.” Then the situation stabilized until the final segment. You saw it all - Contador was carried, as planned, to the decisive part of the climb, and then he attacked together with Valverde. Leipheimer pulled very well before this, and Valverde went from under him. The American fell behind, and this, one might say, saved him - he switched to an even, feasible pace and then managed to get away from Carlos Sastre. He told me after the finish that if he had stayed another two kilometers ahead, it would have ended badly for him - he would have lost a lot of time and at the same time the chance to finish the stage race on the podium. And so, he is now confidently coming in second.”

“Zvezda” does not want to withdraw from the championship

The first division football club “Zvezda” (Irkutsk) will still play a match against the championship leader “Rostov”. It was initially announced that the team was withdrawing from the championship. This decision was made by the administration of the Irkutsk region after an audit, which revealed a number of violations in the financial activities of the club, inflated transfer contracts and misappropriation of funds. Thus, it seemed, ended the sad story of Zvezda, which over the past month had experienced a number of shocks: at the end of August, head coach Sergei Muratov died, and then, due to financial troubles, the team had difficulty recruiting 11 players for the starting lineup, with the place in goal being occupied by field player. In the last days of additional applications, the club solved a number of problems, but continued to lose by a large score.

After the authorities decided to liquidate Zvezda, the team’s players issued an open letter to Governor Igor Esipovsky, in which they asked not to be removed from the championship. So today Zvezda will play perhaps the last match in its history.

"Reds" protest against Americans

More than two thousand fans of English Liverpool held a protest march near the Anfield Road stadium before the match with Manchester United. Fans protested against American club owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette and chanted “Yankees out!” The action was provoked, among other things, by the revelations of Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher in his book, where he directly accuses the American owners of the club of using Liverpool for “money laundering” and of speculation in the construction of a new stadium.

The club has not yet responded to the protest. However, Liverpool's 2:1 victory over Manchester United significantly improved the mood of the Reds' fans.

Prepared by Andrey VDOVIN, Olga ERMOLINA