We reported recently on the humiliating loss to an unseeded opponent of Russia's highly ranked Nadia Petrova at one of two season-opening tournaments Down Under a few days ago, leading up to the Australian Open in a few weeks.

It goes from bad to worse, as seems to be always the case with Russia's ridiculously overrated female tennis players.

Top seed Vera Zvonareva lost to an unknown local teenager in the quarter-finals of the other tournament. Quoth Zvonareva: "I played my best and it wasn't good enough." Indeed so.

And Russia's Maria Kirilenko met a similar fate, going down in easy straight sets to another unseeded teenager, this one from Austria.

American Lyndsey Davenport, coming back from childbirth, will play in the Kirilenko killer in the semi-finals, with no Russians left in the draw.

Meanwhile, in Petrova's tournament, a lower-seeded Israeli player ousted Marat Safin's little sister Dinara, leaving the semi-finals there Russian-free as well. Adding to the humiliation, a Ukrainan managed to reach the semis just as an American did in the other tournament -- but no Russians.

Incidentally, there are currently more Americans who live in America ranked in the world's top 10 female professional tennis players than there are Russians who live in Russia.

Oh! The glories of Vladimir Putin's Russia!