7 мин.

From Russia With ?

546

 

Выставил оригинал статьи Кронина. Он пишет о русском женском теннисе. Думаю вам будет интересно узнать его мнение.

Когда перевод на русском будет готов, выставлю здесь тоже.

 

Matt Cronin: From Russia With ?

9/28/2011 7:00:00 PM

by Matt Cronin

 

Russia′s Maria Sharapova can become No. 1 again next week if she goes very deep in Tokyo and Beijing and the WTA′s current top player, Caroline Wozniacki, flames out in those events.

Whether or not that occurs in the next 10 days, or at the year-end WTA Championships where Sharapova has no points to defend, at the very least, Wozniacki′s top ranking appears vulnerable as she has hit a rough patch and hasn′t won a  Premier level tournament since Charleston at the beginning of April.

But if Sharapova does regain the number one spot, will that put a cherry on the top of her comeback and will it signify to her that she′s all the way back? No it will not, because she′ll be the first one to tell you that winning majors are her No. 1 priority and she hasn′t done so since she returned from shoulder surgery in the spring of 2009.

Back in the summer of 2004, it appeared that the Russian women might actually end up dominating tennis, but seven years later that has not turned out to be the case. While that proud nation has a slew of very good players and a couple of great ones, it has become more known for its depth than for its quality at the top.

During that summer of 2004 when Russia raised its red flag to the heavens, Anastasia Myskina won Roland Garros, Sharapova took Wimbledon and Svetlana Kuznetsova stormed New York and grabbed the crown. But since then, only Sharapova and Kuznetsova have been able to win additional major titles, with the statuesque Los Angeles resident Sharapova taking the 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open, and the bullish and enigmatic Kuznetsova winning Roland Garros in 2009.

Six Grand Slam titles in seven years is nothing to sneeze at, but the Williams sisters alone have combined for 10 major crowns in that period, so it cannot be possibly ventured that Russia has stood tall over the rest of the tour.

Without a doubt, Russia has had a slew of standout performers, but as talented as some were, many have been borderline head cases and others gave up on the sport they professed to love, but ended up having little patience for.

Just look at how many former top five Russian women are no longer playing or are on the sidelines, none whom are older than 30 (Serena′s age): Myskina, Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze. Add to that list former top 10 player Anna Kournikova, who many of the current Russian women′s credit for getting them interested in the sport, but who retired at the age of 21 in 2003, allegedly because of a back injury, but as some who knew her well have ventured, possibly because she could not longer take the heat of trying to win her first singles title.

The balletic Myskina called it quits prematurely in 2007 because of a foot injury and now has two kids. Dementieva, who was true warhorse, did manage to win the Olympic gold medal in 2008, but lost countless tight matches in trying to win a Slam. Former No. 1 Safina is out with a back injury and may never return and if she doesn′t, she′ll exit the sport being one of the few players to have lost all six sets in the major finals she contested.

Chakvetadze, a Martina Hingis play-alike with incredible hands, never recovered from her choke to Kuznetsova at the 2007 US Open or the her mugging later that year at home, and after spending much of this season fighting an inner ear infection, she′s now running for political office in Russia.

And what of veterans Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova, both of whom at times were given good shots to win a major? Zvonareva finally reached two Slam finals last year and was blown out in both of them. A fine all around player, Petrova never managed to reach beyond the semifinals of a major.

Outside of their hunger for success and their incredible fight when they are feeling good on court (not every Russian woman brings it on every single point like Sharapova does), the Russians players best quality is their honesty and after you get to know them well, most will tell you the bottom line when it comes to their upbringings, their tennis and to a degree, their lives.

Here′s what Myskina told me once when I asked why after the fall of communism that so many  Russia athletes decided to put their kids into tennis rather than into traditional Olympic sports that their country once dominated like ice-skating and gymnastics.

"It′s apparent. They think their kid can earn a lot of money in tennis once they are 20 years old," said Myskina. "Gymnastics and ice stating are really hard on kids. It′s not only the money, but in tennis you can also get things like a university scholarship. There are much more opportunities than in gymnastics or ice skating."

So there you have it and still do when it comes to many Russian players: women can earn far more in tennis than they do in any other sport, so if a parent is looking for a way out of an economic pit and has a talented child, tennis looks like a very enticing option.

But what can happen when that scenario comes to fruition is that the player becomes very good, but when she grows old enough to take a hard look at the world around her and starts discovering what her real likes and dislikes are, traveling the world playing tennis for 10 months a year may not seem all that attractive. Safina, Kuznetsova and Petrova have all told me that despite their love for the game, there are parts of their job that they don′t like: the travel grind, the pressure, the difficulty establishing relationships outside of the sport and maintaining relationships at home when they are almost never there.

Dementieva once told me of her introduction to tennis:  "I just loved the sport, but I know there are a lot of parents who push their kids into tennis for their own reasons and that′s wrong. But there are still players who do it because they just love to compete."

So perhaps the reason why so many fine Russian players have left the sport early claiming career-ending injuries is because they no longer really enjoyed the meat grinder of the tour, but did not want to say that publicly, so claiming a broken down body as the reason for the exit was more convenient.

In 2003, Russia was heralded for having an astounding 13 women in the top 100, which was 13 more than they had back in 1993 when they had a big zero.

But currently there are only 11 Russian players in the top 100 and outside of Sharapova and to a lesser degree Zvonareva, none of them are considered to be major threats to win a Slam.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Ksenia Pervak are both 20 and have substantial upsides, but neither has enjoyed the success of a Sharapova at a young age. The creative Maria Kirilenko, who is just 24, is having one of the best seasons  of her career, but isn′t considered a huge threat at the majors.

So maybe Russia is going to have wait another five to 10 years before it can start thinking about dominating again, and maybe when it does, that group of players will stay around for a little longer because they actually chose the sport for themselves and learned to love it.

 

____________________________________________

Matt Cronin is a senior writer for Inside Tennis magazine, and the co-owner of the award winning TennisReporters.net. He writes the Ticker for Tennis.com, contributes regularly to Reuters, and is a radio analyst for all the Grand Slams. He just published the book, “Epic: John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and the Greatest Tennis Season Ever.”