Sharapova returned to the WTA tour

Chronicle of sporting events

World number two Maria Sharapova played her first match on the WTA tour after the British Open ended in early July. For several weeks, the Russian woman, who had never played for the national team of our country, was treating an injured shoulder and for this reason refused to participate in the US Fed Cup match against Russia (July 14-15). Ten days later, Sharapova fulfilled her contract with the Newport Beach Brickers club, playing in the American club World Team Tennis, having played a couple of matches in the regular season meeting.

Maria’s return to the BTA tour took place at a first-category tournament with a standard prize fund of $1.34 million for competitions of this rank. Having been exempted from the 1/32 final matches, in the second round our prima beat Tamarin Tanasugarn - 6:1, 6: 3. Anna Chakvetadze, who defeated American Meganne Shaughnessy (6:4, 6:4), Dinara Safina, who turned out to be stronger than Frenchwoman Camille Pin (6:1, 6:4), and Elena Dementieva, who defeated the German qualifier, also advanced to the third round. Angelique Kerber (6:1, 6:2), and Maria Kirilenko, who beat the Czech Lucie Safarova - 6:4, 7:6 (7:3). But Alla Kudryavtseva was defeated by the 11th-seeded Swiss representative Patti Schneider - 2:6, 0:6.

At the fourth category BTA competitions, with a total bonus amount of 145 thousand dollars, Vera Dushevina reached the quarterfinals. She defeated the wild card holder, Finnish tennis player Emma Laine - 6:3, 6:3. Moreover, Dushevina had to play the second match in a row against girls who received a special invitation from the organizers. Earlier, Swede Hana Nuni became a victim of the Russian woman.

European champions in whip will suffer defeat

The last Grand Slam beach volleyball tournament of this season started in Klagenfurt (Austria). Participants in the World Championships held last week in Switzerland, Roman Arkaev and Alexander Kuzmichev, managed to get into the main tournament through qualification.

On the sand courts of Klagenfurt, the competition is held according to the group system, and not according to the playoffs until two defeats, which is usual for the stages of the World Tour. The first match of the Russians in Quartet “D” against the Brazilians Marcio Araujo and Fabio Luis Magalhaes, who are second in the current season’s rankings, ended in a major fiasco – 13:21, 12:21. Vice-world champions from Belgorod Igor Kolodinsky and Dmitry Barsuk, as befits an elite couple, took to the sand already in the evening program.

The current European champions Natalya Uryadova and Alexandra Shiryaeva, according to the initial entry sheet, were supposed to start the competition with qualifications, but this is not the first time this season that the Russians were lucky - several couples refused to participate. Our girls automatically earned 80 rating points and $3,500 in prize money for two, having qualified for the main tournament. Yesterday they played two matches and in both cases they left the court as losers after a three-set fight. Shiryaeva and Uryadova lost to the Chinese Chen Xue - Xi Zheng (15:21, 21:15, 18:20) and the German tandem Stephanie Pohl - Okka Rau (21:18, 19:21, 10:15). Ilya TRISVIATSKY

“Khimki” and “Rubin” parted ways

In the 17th round match, postponed due to Rubin's participation in the Intertoto Cup, the Kazan team drew 0:0 with Khimki. Throughout the game, both teams thought primarily about defense and created almost no chances at the opponent's goal: the hosts hit the target twice, and the guests only once. So the head coach of the Russian national team, Guus Hiddink, who was present at the match, was left disappointed. As a result, Khimki again failed to win - the winless streak of the Moscow region team is already seven matches. However, the point allowed Khimki to rise from the penultimate line in the standings and enter the group of teams that, with 21 points each, occupy places from ninth to fifteenth. In turn, Rubin, thanks to this draw, scored 24 points and pushed Lokomotiv out of 6th place.

In addition, Rubin, which is experiencing big problems in attack and is among the worst teams in the Premier League in terms of performance, acquired Turkish forward Hasan Kabze, who previously played for Galatasaray. Andrey VDOVIN

Chagaev refused to meet with Ibragimov

The unification fight between WBA world champion Ruslan Chagaev and WBO world champion, scheduled for October 12 in Moscow, will not take place. The team of Uzbek boxer Ruslan Chagaev presented medical documents indicating an exacerbation of gastric problems in the boxer, due to which he will not be able to train for several months. Thus, by October Chagaev will not have time to prepare for the fight.

A replacement was urgently found for the Uzbek boxer. On October 12, Sultan Ibragimov will finally enter the ring, and his opponent will be the famous American Evander Holyfield.

Meanwhile, the date of Nikolai Valuev’s next fight has been officially announced. The former world champion, who has not entered the ring since April 14, when he lost his title to Ruslan Chagaev, will fight on September 29 in Oldenburg, Germany. Valuev’s opponent will be Canadian Jean-François Bergeron. In the Valuev-Bergeron fight, the WBA intercontinental champion title, which belongs to the Canadian, will be at stake. Bejeron is 34 years old; he fought 27 fights in the professional ring, winning all of them, 19 of them by knockout.

Valuev has one defeat in 46 meetings. And after that he decided to change coach. Now it is not Manvel Gabrielyan who is working with the ex-world champion, but Alexander Zimin. The famous coach has already stated that Valuev has noticeably improved in technique and speed and after a few fights he will be able to regain his title. Konstantin IVANOV

Ilya TRISVIATSKY