Translated material
Week calendar
The Final Four will take place in the same hall where the decisive matches of the September European Championship were held. Then the Russian team lost to the Italians in the final and won silver medals. The owner of the site at the end of the coming week will be “Sisley” from Treviso. In the semi-finals he will meet with the capital's Dynamo. The diagonal striker of the “blue and white” Stanislav Dineykin, before returning to Russia, played at Sisley and led this team to the title of national champion. This is the second time that two Russian clubs have made it into the strongest quartet of the Champions League. Two years ago, Lokomotiv-Belogorye beat Iskra Odintsovo in the title match in Belgorod. A Russian final cannot be ruled out even now. On the first day of the tournament, the Railwaymen will meet with the Greek Iraklis (Thessaloniki). Both our teams are quite capable of defeating their foreign opponents. Interestingly, for Lokomotiv setter Vadim Khamuttskikh this will be the eighth Final Four of the European tournament in his career. He played seven times for his native club and once as part of the Turkish Erdemirspor. In Russia there are no analogues to the unique achievement of the Khamuttskys.
FOOTBALL. Russian Cup. March 22. Quarterfinals. First matches. Premier League. 2nd round. March 26. CSKA - Shinnik, Tom - Dynamo, Saturn - Torpedo, Amkar - Zenit, Rostov - Moscow, Luch-Energia - “Lokomotiv”, “Spartak” Nch - “Spartak” M. March 27. "Wings of the Soviets" - "Rubin".
In the quarterfinals of the Russian Cup they play: Rubin - CSKA, Zenit - Torpedo, Saturn - Dynamo and Spartak M - Lokomotiv. So these clubs have double the workload this week.
BASKETBALL. March 21. ULEB Cup. Semi-final. First matches. FIBA European Cup. Women. Final. Return match . March 22-23. Euroleague ULEB. Second group stage "Top 16". Fifth round. March 23. FIBA Challenge Cup. Men. Final. Return match .
In the main continental tournament Euroleague ULEB, the capital's army team has already secured a ticket to the playoffs by beating Vilnius Lietuvos Rytas in a home match last week. Nevertheless, head coach Ettore Messina's charges are not going to stop there. The “red-blues” need to take first place in their quartet in order to reach the quarterfinals of the competition from a more advantageous position and gain home-court advantage in a best-of-two series played according to the “1-1-1” scheme. Therefore, CSKA will make every effort to beat the German Bamberg at home on Wednesday. The task is not difficult, because the club from Germany, having lost in all four matches, is an outsider in Group F. In the first round, the army team defeated Bamberg on the road with a difference of 11 points - 75:64.
In the semi-finals of the ULEB Cup, Dynamo Moscow will compete with Hapoel from Jerusalem. The first game will take place in Moscow. At the previous stage, the Israeli club knocked out the strong Italian Virtus from the fight. The Jerusalem team lost eight points on the road, but defeated the Romans at home - 74:56. Hapoel has four Americans, including Mario Austin, who once signed a contract with CSKA, but never played for the capital club due to health problems. Among the opponents there is a local player with a very funny surname for Russian perception - Raviv Limonad.
It looks like two Russian clubs will lift the FIBA Europe continental trophies this week. Perm “Ural-Great” before the return home match with “Khimik” from the Ukrainian city of Yuzhny has a safety margin of 13 points; Spartak near Moscow won two points more away from the French ASPTT (Aix-en-Provence).
TENNIS. March 20--27. Men's tournament of the Masters series. Women's tournament of the first category BTA. Miami (USA).
The tennis elite is moving from California to Florida to play a second major tournament in a row, where the fair sex competes alongside men. These competitions have a two-week format, and according to the regulations, they are as close as possible to the Grand Slam tournaments. The fight in the main singles draw begins at the 1/64 final stage. The only difference is that in Miami there will be not 128 participants, as in the open championships of Australia, Great Britain, France and the USA, but 96.
Last year, the winners of Miami were the Swiss Roger Federer and the Belgian Kim Clijsters, who beat Maria Sharapova in the final. Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo will begin the competition as the first racket of the world. She took this title from Clijsters, although both girls did not compete last week in Indian Wells.
HOCKEY. March 22, 23, 25 and, if necessary, March 26. Super League. Playoffs. Quarterfinals. First, second, third and, if necessary, fourth matches.
As in the previous round, series are held up to three wins according to the “2-2-1” scheme. The team that took the higher place at the end of the three-round regular season tournament has the advantage of home ice in the fifth match.
CHESS. March 20--27. Traditional international tournament named after Anatoly Karpov. Poikovsky (Russia).
The tournament is attended by Ruslan Ponomarev (Ukraine), Alexey Shirov (Spain), Russians Vadim Zvyagintsev, Evgeny Bareev, Alexey Dreev, Sergey Rublevsky, Evgeny Najer, Ivan Sokolov (Holland), Viorel Bologan (Moldova), Alexander Onischuk (USA). In the first round, two games out of five ended successfully. Ponomarev defeated Onischuk with white pieces, and Rublevsky defeated Bologan with black pieces.
FIGURE SKATING. March 20--26. World Championship. Calgary (Canada).
None of the winners of the last Olympics will compete for Russia at the world championship. In men's single skating, our country is represented by Ilya Klimkin and Andrey Gryazev, in women's single skating by Elena Sokolova, Arina Martynova and Katarina Gerboldt. In the sports pairs competition we have three duets: Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov, Maria Petrova and Alexey Tikhonov, Yulia Obertas and Sergey Slavnov. Our dance couples are as follows: Oksana Domnina - Maxim Shabalin, Yana Khokhlova - Sergei Novitsky, Elena Romanovskaya - Alexander Grachev.