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Friday, May 04, 2007

Annals of Tennis Failure by "Dominant" Russians

The WTA is conducting a tennis event this week in Warsaw, Poland -- the tiny tier II J&S Cup. More humiliation for Russia? Of course. The tournament's number 5 seed, world #9 Russian Nadia Petrova, was eliminated in easy straight sets in her second match of the tournament by an unseeded Italian not ranked in the world's top 30 players. Meanwhile, the WTA website ran a poll which asked: After three runner-up finishes, will Svetlana Kuznetsova win her first J&S Cup title in Warsaw? To do so, she'd have to get post the two top Belgians, Kim Clijsters (who crushed Kuzentsova in straight sets in last year's final) and Justine Henin-Hardenne, and she needed three sets to get past her first opponent in the tournament, a lowly Ukrainian qualifier. That's to say nothing of having to beat Venus Williams in her next match, after the unseeded Williams thrashed number 7 seed and world #13 Yelena Dementieva in easy straight sets (two of Russia's four seeded players in the tournament failed to even reach the quarterfinals). Over 4,000 visitors have voted on the poll so far, here are the results:

After three runner-up finishes, will Svetlana Kuznetsova win her first J&S Cup title in Warsaw?

13%

Yes


87%

No

Total votes - 4042

It's a nice little indication of what the tennis-watching world actually thinks about the quality of the so-called "dominant" Russian female tennis players.


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