| The Moscow tennis tournament starts for the 15th time Yesterday there was a presentation of the XV tennis tournament - the Kremlin Cup, which will be held in the capital's Olimpiysky sports complex from October 9 to 17. According to established tradition, women's and men's competitions start at the same time. The total prize fund of the tournament remained unchanged - $2.3 million, of which the prize fund of the women's tournament is $1.3 million, the men's - $1 million. The monetary discrepancy is dictated by the different statuses of the women's and men's competitions held as part of the Kremlin Cup . Women's competitions have the highest status, since they are among the nine VTIA tournaments of the first category, while men's competitions belong to the prestigious “International Series”.
For many years, the Kremlin Cup has been the most significant international tennis tournament in Russia, which is held on an ongoing basis and began its history back in Soviet times. According to the President of the All-Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpishchev, in recent months the situation in our tennis has changed qualitatively, as evidenced especially eloquently by the success of girls in the international arena. “One thing is that after the victories of Sharapova and Dementieva at last week’s tournaments, I only received one phone call with congratulations, proof that people are already accustomed to success. And this imposes additional obligations on the organizers of the Kremlin Cup,” Tarpishchev noted.
True, many are inclined to view the high results of our tennis players as a consequence of serious problems among our main opponents. Many foreign athletes did not escape injuries this season, and this to some extent made the task easier for the Russians. However, they have gained the necessary experience and confidence, which will naturally help them reach their full potential next year. As for our lag in men's tennis, according to Tarpishchev, there are objective reasons for this that go beyond the scope of sports. For example, over the past four years, 103 tennis players have left Russia for the United States to study. “It is clear that the Americans create all the conditions for talented tennis players, giving them the opportunity to study at American universities for free. This problem concerns boys to a greater extent, since parents are afraid to let girls go alone,” Tarpishchev explained the situation.
Characterizing the lineups of participants in the upcoming tournament, Tarpishchev said: “The male lineup of the Kremlin Cup is even, and the female lineup is stellar.” Indeed, if there are not many big names among the participants in the men's tournament: Marat Safin, Andrey Pavel, Dominik Hrbaty, Jonas Bjorkman, Sargis Sargsyan, Max Mirny, Mikhail Youzhny, Igor Andreev, Nikolay Davydenko and others, then the women's list includes the most famous tennis players. Russians - Anastasia Myskina, Elena Dementyeva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva, Nadezhda Petrova, Elena Bovina. It is possible that several more Russian women will receive wild cards from the organizers - special invitations. French women Amelie Mauresmo, Marie Pierce and Nathalie Dechy, Americans Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams, Japanese Ai Sugiyama, Alicia Molik from Australia and others will come to Moscow. According to the director of the women's Kremlin Cup tournament, Alexei Selivanenko, only one athlete refused to participate in the tournament - Kim Clijsters from Belgium, who, due to an injury, decided not to compete again this season.
True, our Maria Sharapova is also missing from the list of participants. As Selivanenko explained, tennis players usually draw up a performance schedule for the season a year in advance. Sharapova has quite a lot of tournaments planned, and she has certain obligations to their organizers. There are no other reasons for non-participation, interpreted as a reluctance to come to the Moscow tournament. However, a more frank explanation about Sharapova was given by Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who noted: “The athlete’s rating allowed her to participate in the upcoming Kremlin Cup, but Maria did not express a desire to come to Moscow. Apparently, there were objective reasons for this.” Olga ERMOLINA |
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