Translated material
Week calendar
Champions League. August 28-29. Third qualifying round. Return matches .
UEFA Cup. September 30. Second qualifying round. Return matches .
Capital Spartak, the leader in the Russian championship, has a very difficult week ahead. On Wednesday, the red-whites will play the second away match of the decisive round of Champions League qualifying against Scottish Celtic. A goalless draw will be enough for the Celts in Glasgow, as the first game on the Luzhniki artificial turf ended with a score of 1:1. On Sunday, Stanislav Cherchesov's players have another serious test - a domestic championship match against the reigning champion CSKA. A defeat in this meeting could threaten Spartak with losing its leadership in the Premier League, since Zenit is only two points behind. On Thursday, on the banks of the Neva, as part of the UEFA Cup, the St. Petersburg team will host the modest Slovakian “ViOn” (Zlato-Moravce), which they previously defeated on the road with a score of 2:0.
TENNIS. August 27 - September 2. Grand Slam tournament. US Open. First week. New York.
According to the rating, 24 Russian tennis players received the right to play in the main draw without qualification - eight men and 16 women, and exactly ten of them, due to their high position in the world ranking, were “seeded”. These are Nikolay Davydenko (4th number), Mikhail Youzhny (11), Marat Safin (25), Dmitry Tursunov (27), current US Open champion Maria Sharapova (2), winner of this tournament in 2004 Svetlana Kuznetsova (4), conducting the best season in their careers Anna Chakvetadze (6), Nadezhda Petrova (7), Elena Dementieva (14), Dinara Safina (15), Vera Zvonareva (27).
Alina Zhidkova and Ekaterina Makarova successfully overcame the qualification barrier, bringing the number of our US Open participants to 26.
First round (1/64 finals). Men. Igor Andreev -- Kendrick (USA), Davydenko -- Levin (USA), Igor Kunitsyn -- Garcia-Lopez (Spain), Yuzhny -- Devilde (France), Teimuraz Gabashvili -- Gonzalez (Chile, 7th seed "), Evgeniy Korolev - Wawrinka (Switzerland), Safin - Dantsevich (Canada, "qualified"), Tursunov - Henman (Great Britain). If Safina and Koroleva are successful, Marat and Evgeniy will play against each other in the second round. Women. Olga Puchkova - Pironkova (Bulgaria, "qualified"), Makarova - Schruff (Germany), Safina - Castano (Colombia), Zvonareva - Zhidkova, Likhovtseva - Albanese (USA), Dementieva - Cohen-Aloro (France) ), Vera Dushevina - Santangelo (Italy, 25), Ekaterina Bychkova - Zhi Yan (China), Petrova - Baczynski (Switzerland), Anastasia Rodionova - Savchuk (Ukraine), Maria Kirilenko - Müller (Germany), Elena Vesnina - Kostanic-Tosic (Croatia), Kuznetsova - Zakopalova (Czech Republic), Chakvetadze - Weinhold (USA), Alla Kudryavtseva - Vaidishova (Czech Republic, 13), Shvedova - Dellacqua (Australia), Sharapova - Vinci ( Italy).
ATHLETICS. August 27 - September 2. World Championship. Osaka (Japan).
The acting head coach of the Russian national team, Valentin Maslakov, said that the medal plan for our national team at the World Championships is as follows: six to eight first places and a total of 18 awards of various denominations.
Schedule of final starts for the week. August 27. Hammer (men), 3000 m s/p (women), triple jump (m), 10,000 m (m), 100 m (w). August 28. Pole (w), disc (m), length (w), 3000 m s/p (m), 800 m (w), 400 m s/p (m). August 29. Disc (w), height (m), 100 m s/b (w), 400 m (w), 1500 m (m). August 30. Hammer (w), 400 m s/b (w), length (m), 200 m (m). August 31st. Walking 20 km (w), decathlon, (m, first day, five events), triple jump (w), javelin (w), 200 m (w), 400 m (m), 110 m s/b (m) . September 1st. Walking 50 km (m), decathlon (m, second day, last five events), pole (m), 5000 m (w), 4x100 m relay (m, w). September 2. Marathon 42 km 195 m (w), height (w), 5000 m (m), javelin (m), 800 m (m), 1500 m (w), 4x400 m relay (m, w).
BEACH VOLLEYBALL. August 28 -- September 2. World Tour stage. Saint Petersburg.
The beach volleyball season is coming to an end. For women, only the autumn stages will remain in Brazil and Thailand, for men - in Poland, Brazil and Indonesia. And the previously scheduled World Tour competitions for the end of October in Mexico have been cancelled.
The St. Petersburg stage is an excellent opportunity for Russians to earn rating points on their home sand. For the vice-world champions of Belgorod, Igor Kolodinsky and Dmitry Barsuk, who are now in third place in the 2007 World Tour classification, it is extremely important to finally win the stage. The Russians reached the Final Four many times, but were able to overcome the semi-final barrier only at the World Championship, winning silver. For the 2006 European champions Natalya Uryadova and Alexandra Shiryaeva, the issue of gaining points in the Olympic qualification ranking is more pressing. Although last week they significantly increased their total points, taking fourth place at the continental championship in Valencia.
The stage in St. Petersburg is taking place for the third year in a row. Currently, 75 men's and 58 women's couples from 40 countries have signed up to participate in the tournament. In the previous two seasons, representatives of Brazil excelled in both men's and women's competitions. The South Americans are arriving in the city on the Neva, and this time there are only six couples admitted to the main draw, and five more Brazilian teams will begin the tournament with qualifications. Naturally, Barsuk-Kolodinsky, as well as Roman Arkaev - Alexander Kuzmichev, Mikhail Kushnerev - Vyacheslav Makhortov, Uryadova - Shiryaeva, Inna Shmat - Natalya Stepanova, Maria Bratkova - Evgenia Ukolova, were exempted from selection from the Russians.
CYCLE HIGHWAY. September 1-2. Multi-day race of the Pro Tour series “Vuelta a España”. Stages 1-2 .
Unlike the Tour de France and the Italian Giro, this season's Vuelta starts with a regular group stage. It will take place in the vicinity of the city of Vigo. 21 teams will take part in the race. Of those who have Pro Tour licenses, the Swedish Unibet and the Kazakh Astana, suspended due to numerous doping scandals, will be absent. There will be five Russians at the Vuelta - Denis Menshov, Vladimir Karpets, Alexander Bocharov, Alexander Kolobnev and Eduard Vorganov. The latter plays for the visiting team Karpin-Galicia, whose boss is former Russian football team player Valery Karpin.
HOCKEY. August 27, 29, 31, September 1. A series of matches between the youth teams of Russia and Canada . First part .
The confrontation between the youth teams is dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the 1972 USSR-Canada super series. In Russia, the teams will play two matches, first in Ufa and then in Omsk, after which they will travel across the Atlantic for meetings on September 4-9 in the Land of the Maple Leaf.