Translated material
Victory on the quiet
Sharapova successfully debuted in the Russian national team
Russian tennis players advanced to the next round of the Federation Tennis Cup. In the opening match, our athletes beat the Israelis 3:1 on the road.The venue for the match was the Israeli city of Ramat Hasharon, where there was no indoor palace, so the tennis players had to play on an open court. After the recent Australian Open, adapting to such conditions was not a problem. Certain difficulties arose only with preparation for the match, since heavy rains did not allow our athletes to prepare as planned. True, the debutant of the Russian quartet, winner of the Australian Open, Maria Sharapova, saw this as a plus, since she had the opportunity to continue her short-term rest. According to Sharapova, she only needed to do two workouts to get into optimal shape.
For the current holders of the prestigious trophy, the Russian team, defeating the Israelis was not difficult. No one has ever won a team tournament alone, and of the four announced Israeli athletes - Shahar Pe'er, Tzipora Obziler, Keren Shlomo and Yulia Glushko, only Pe'er is a player in the top twenty of the WTA rankings. In comparison with the hostesses of the court, the composition of the Russian quartet, even in the absence of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva, was more titled - Maria Sharapova, Anna Chakvetadze, Dinara Safina, Elena Vesnina.
Domestic fans, who expressed opinions on various Internet sites, believed that the result of the meeting would be in favor of the Russians - 4:1. The captain of our quartet, Shamil Tarpishchev, was more cautious in his forecasts. In his opinion, he assessed the chances of his players winning as 65% versus 35. At the same time, Tarpishchev added that the appearance of Maria Sharapova in the national team will give the rest of the Russian participants confidence and positive emotions, since after the victory in Melbourne the athlete is experiencing an emotional upsurge.
The outcome of the confrontation between the Russian and Israeli national teams was actually a foregone conclusion after the third singles match on Sunday, in which Maria Sharapova easily defeated Shahar Pe'er - 6:1, 6:1. Throughout the game, the Russian woman surpassed her opponent in all components, only twice giving her the opportunity to snap back. After Saturday's singles match with Tziporah Obziler, Sharapova entered this match extremely motivated and collected. The Russian woman’s main goal was not to relax. After all, it was precisely this decline that played a cruel joke on Sharapova in the previous game. When, after the “dry” first set, Sharapova, in her words, relaxed, the Israeli, who caught the courage, did not fail to take advantage of this hitch. Obtsiler managed to bring the score in the second set to 4:5, but she was not enough for more. Despite the “unsportsmanlike” behavior of the fans, which could hardly be imagined by real tennis fans, the Russian woman beat Obtsiler 6:0, 6:4 and, thus, summed up the day by leveling the score in the match - 1:1. The game was played in virtually constant noise, and the most inventive ones imitated the moans that Sharapova makes on the court; Even the captain of the Israeli team's calls to the public to be quiet did not help.
In the first game on Saturday, Russian Dinara Safina lost to Shahar Pe'er - 0:6, 6:2, 6:2. After a disastrous start, Peer, under pressure from the public, managed to turn the tide of the meeting. Safina refused to even comment on the reasons for the defeat, she looked so upset. Apparently, this explained Tarpishchev’s decision to replace the athlete in the last singles match, replacing Safina with Anna Chakvetadze.
At first, Chakvetadze made her fans a little nervous. Obtsiler immediately took three games in a row and seized the initiative. Only towards the middle of the game did the game even out, Chakvetadze coped with her excitement and, although not without difficulty, won the first set - 6:4. In the second, the athletes exchanged games they had won, but the Russian’s class and superiority were constantly visible. The tension on the court reached its climax. It seemed that if you touched a match, the court would light up like a torch. The fans, despite numerous warnings from the referees, increasingly shouted “out”, clapped and whistled, which clearly prevented the tennis players from playing. To a greater extent, this concerned Chakvetadze, who, while maintaining external composure throughout the match, still got excited at the end of the meeting. The shouts of the audience truly angered the Russian woman, and she could no longer be restrained. On the court, Chakvetadze behaved exactly the same as Maria Sharapova an hour earlier. After each goal she won, she raised her hands in victory and cheered herself up. It seemed that Anna was completely focused on the game and everything that happened off the court didn’t bother her much.
The match ended in favor of Chakvetadze - 6:4, 6:2. And the last pair meeting didn’t decide anything. The Russians won with a score of 3:1. Now in the semi-finals, which is scheduled for April 26-27, they will have to fight with the winners of the USA-Germany pair.