Past the final

The Italian team defeated Shamil Tarpishchev's team

Russian tennis players lost in the semifinals of the Federation Cup. In three singles matches, the current holders of the team title (Russians won this trophy in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008) lost to the Italians and lost their chance to reach the final this year.

Even before the start of the match meeting, which took place in the Italian town of Castellaneta Marina, the captain of our team, Shamil Tarpishchev, complained about problems with the squad. Despite the fact that there are many strong tennis players in Russia, five of whom are in the top ten of the WTA, others could not support the Russian team in the current semi-final, except for the ninth racket of the world, Svetlana Kuznetsova. There were objective reasons for this. The leader of the women's world ranking, Dinara Safina, decided to skip the team tournament this year. World number three Elena Dementieva, after a successful start to the season, focused on preparing for Roland Garros. On the eve of the semi-final, number six on the women's list, Vera Zvonareva, suffered a leg injury and was out of action for several weeks due to a torn ligament.

The absence of the announced Zvonareva significantly weakened the Russians' chances, since Alisa Kleybanova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had minimal experience in participating in team competitions. Anna Chakvetadze, judging by last year and the beginning of this year, is still in search of a coach and her own game. And Nadezhda Petrova flew to Italy from the USA only on the eve of the competition and, apparently, was unable to adapt to the new conditions.

In such a situation, the main burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of Svetlana Kuznetsova, for whom the current season is shaping up to be very difficult. At the end of last year, the St. Petersburg resident decided to move from Spain to Russia and train under the guidance of Olga Morozova. However, this tandem soon broke up, since two naturally strong athletes were unable to find a common language. Kuznetsova complained that the coach was suppressing her with authority, and again began to look for a coach. This season, before Roland Garros, Svetlana began preparing with national team coach Larisa Savchenko-Neyland.

Due to the problems that arose, Kuznetsova did not plan to participate in the semi-finals of the Federation Cup. But we must pay tribute to the athlete, having delved into the situation, she reconsidered her personal plans. The support of the world number nine turned out to be very helpful. After the first day of play, the Italians took a 2-0 lead. Anna Chakvetadze lost the opening match to Flavia Pennetta - 4:6, 0:6. And then Kuznetsova’s winning statistics in the confrontation with Francesca Schiavone changed. Before this match, the Russian woman had defeated the Italian in eight out of 11 matches. However, this time, having won the first set quite easily, Kuznetsova relaxed and lost - 1:6, 6:2, 6:3. “Unlike the first set, I was unable to cope with my opponent in the second and third. “Schiavone seemed made to play on such surfaces,” Kuznetsova commented on her defeat, talking about the difficulties of switching from hard to clay.

However, the Russian woman added that it was too early to talk about defeat. And she was partly right: in the first meeting on Sunday, Kuznetsova broke the clean sheet by defeating Pennetta - 6:0, 6:3. And then Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who replaced Chakvetadze, almost became the author of a sensation. Inspired by her recent victories over Jankovic and Radwanska, the Russian was not going to give up so easily. This was confirmed by the first set of the duel between Pavlyuchenkova and Schiavone, which lasted more than an hour. And only in the tiebreaker did the experienced Italian tip the scales. The second game was left to the Russian, but in the third there was no miracle - 7:6 (9:7), 4:6, 6:2. The Italians won the 2006 Fed Cup with a score of 3-1. The last pairs meeting could no longer affect the final result. Captain Corrad Barazzutti's team reached the final, where they will compete with the winners of the Czech Republic - USA pair.

Olga ERMOLINA