| Sharapova was not going to play with Kournikova Today, the winner of the Wimbledon tournament, 17-year-old Maria Sharapova, will play her first match after her British triumph. The Russian will play in the US club championship for the Newport Beach Brickers. However, then Maria, who is very tired of the busy competition schedule and the excessive attention that has fallen on her from representatives of the media, intends to take a break.
A number of Russian media completely erroneously assumed that the first face-to-face meeting between Sharapova and Anna Kournikova could take place within the framework of the US club league. Yes, indeed, the matches of Newport and the team of the former prima of our tennis, Kansas City Explorers, are scheduled on the calendar for July 17 and 21, but the whole point is that Anna’s contract was designed only for the first four rounds of the championship, that is, with July 6 to 10. Sharapova's agreement provided for her to perform in two matches - on July 14 and 17. Now Maria’s plans have changed. She will play only today against the league vice-champion Sacramento Capitals. Two representatives of Russia are playing for this team - last year's Wimbledon finalist in mixed doubles, Russian Anastasia Rodionova, Dmitry Tursunov, as well as young talent from the Czech Republic, Nicole Vaidishova and Mike Knowles from the Bahamas. Sharapova also informed the BTA and the organizers of the tournament starting next week in Los Angeles that she would not be able to take part in it. “At the time when my performance schedule for the season was planned, I naturally dreamed of winning Wimbledon, but I didn’t really count on it,” Sharapova explained the situation. - I didn’t think that I would stay in England for so long and play the maximum number of matches there. I really need at least some rest in order to return to the BTA tour with new strength.”
The leaders of the Californian club found themselves in a difficult situation in connection with Maria’s request to be released from the game on July 17. After all, the ticket program was partly designed for Sharapova. Those who wanted to see the Russian diva had to overpay. Newport offered those tennis fans who purchased tickets for the coming Saturday to urgently change them for today's date. They will not have time to do all this, because the number of seats at the Palisades Stadium in Newport Beach is limited - the stands are designed for only two thousand spectators. Latecomers will be content with a clearly unequal replacement - passage to the match on July 20 with the participation of world ranking leaders in doubles Mike and Bob Bryan. In the meantime, it is planned that Sharapova should play at the end of the month at the first category BTA tournament “Acura Classic” with a prize fund of $1.3 million in San Diego. If, of course, she feels properly rested.
And this week there is only one serious competition in women's tennis. There, in California, on Stanford's hard courts, the girls distribute $585,000 in bonuses among themselves. The tournament favorites are Americans Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport. Most likely, in the near future, Russian participant Lyudmila Skavronskaya will become our 15th compatriot in the top hundred of the world rankings. Lyudmila has already reached the second round, having passed through qualification and beating Hungarian Petra Mandula in the opening round of the main draw - 3:6, 6:2, 6:3. The 24-year-old tennis player's winning streak has already reached 15 matches in a row, although she spent most of these matches at ITF tournaments in Italy and the USA, where she received two titles in a row. So far Skavronskaya is in 135th position in the WTA classification, but judging by the pace she has taken this season, she will soon get the necessary points and break into the top 100. In the meantime, this list has the same number of our girls and American girls. Today Skavronskaya has the most difficult test of her career - a match against Davenport. At Stanford, Alina Zhidkova has already dropped out of the fight, losing to the Spaniard Arancha Parra - 2:6, 1:6. Elena Likhovtseva meets Frenchwoman Marian Bartoli in the first round. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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