The road to Wimbeldon is littered with Russian casualties. In the three run-up tournaments toThe Championships, Russians have gone down to (largely inglorious) defeat, and it all comes as Russians jealously watch Ukraine make fantastic progress at the FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Once again, a Russian woman has lost a tennis tournament in straight sets to a much lower-ranked adversary. As Forbes magazine reports: "Michaella Krajicek [world #39] beat Dinara Safina [world #17] of Russia 6-3, 6-4 to win the Ordina Open on Saturday, the first Dutch woman to capture her country's only grass-court tournament. In a final between younger sisters of Grand Slam winners, Krajicek won her third career title and second this year, the others coming in Hobart in January and last year in Tashkent. The 17-year-old player has won all three times she has been to a final. " Krajicek also defeated the top seed in the tournament, Russian Elena Dementieva.

Meanwhile, another Russian, Anastasia Myskina, was vanquished at the Eastbourne tournament, though Myskina did push the higher-ranked Henin-Hardenne who ultimately took the title to three sets. In fact, Myskina defeated the higher-ranked Kuznetsova to reach the finals, thus vastly out-performing Maria Sharapova's result at the Birmingham event where no top-ten player was even entered, yet Myskina continues to dwell in Sharapova's shadow of illusions and lies.