Russia Struggles to Select Fed Cup Final Squad
Published by Aaress Lawless on Sep 1, 2008 | Print |
Defending Fed Cup by BNP Paribas holders Russia might be forced to take a weakened team to the final round later this month.
Russia, who has won the Fed Cup trophy four times in the last five years, will face Spain on September 13-14.
Russian tennis head Shamil Tarpishchev named on Monday only two members of his team, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Vesnina.
“Kuznetsova and Vesnina are definitely in the team. I’ll name the rest of the squad next Monday,” said Tarpishchev in comments first published by Reuters.
Kuznetsova is Russia’s highest ranked singles player, but has not been playing well for the past several weeks. She was upset in the third round of the US Open by Katarina Srebotnik.
Tarpishchev faces a difficult predicament because his other top players are either injured or focused on their singles careers in pursuit of the No. 1 ranking.
“Dementieva and Safina have a real chance to become world number one so we might have to give both of them a break from the final,” said Tarpishchev. “We’ll have to wait and see how they progress at the U.S. Open.”
Russia’s three remaining top ten players are doubtful to compete as well.
“Sharapova has a shoulder injury, Zvonareva has pain in her wrist and Chakvetadze is not fully fit at the moment,” added Tarpishchev.
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