At a press conference held the day before, the organizers of the competition shared some details.
“We are trying to maintain the level of organization that we have already achieved,” said Chairman of the Kremlin Cup Board of Directors and President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev. - Last year, the tournament was recognized as the best in world tennis, and scored a record number of rating points. And now we expect that no one will be disappointed - neither the participants nor the guests. Before the current tournament, for example, we laid down a completely new synthetic cover - “Rukort”, which is most likely a bed for the Davis Cup final.
The preceding phrase needs clarification. The choice of coverage for Davis Cup matches is usually kept secret by the organizers to the last. But this time, Shamil Tarpishchev seems to have decided to change traditions. Although, if desired, it can be assumed that the rivals of our men's national team in the final, the Argentines, just got a catch. And in December, guests will be waiting for the “Olympic” another type of synthetic coating.
But in relation to the upcoming Kremlin Cup, Tarpishchev certainly did not need to “filter” the information. He simply proudly announced that the entire world elite would take part in the women's tournament, with the exception of injured Belgians Kim Kleisters and Justine Henin-Ardenne, as well as Swiss Martina Hingis. Almost in full force will play in Moscow and the Russian “dream-team”, how fit to dignify our women's team. An exception is Anastasia Myskina, who, due to a stress fracture of the big toe, will have to spend about six months on treatment.
But the first racket of Russia Maria Sharapova will arrive in Moscow for the second year in a row. Moreover, the newly made winner of the US Open has expressed a desire to do this more often - on the eve it became known about Masha’s readiness to play in the Federation Cup, although not at all its stages. Therefore, an additional question immediately arose for Tarpishchev: what about his unshakable principle that in the finals (of course, subject to getting there), only those who have covered the entire distance should play? In response, the president of the federation promised that all issues on this subject would be resolved with Sharapova during the Kremlin Cup.
Finally, Shamil Tarpishchev announced another promising news: since 2009, the Kremlin’s men's Cup has a chance to get into the elite “nine” world tournaments - that is when the international calendar will be revised. In the meantime, the format of the tournament will remain the same, and stars of the first magnitude will not come to it. But all the Russian collections in the Olimpiysky will play, including Dmitry Tursunov, the hero of the recent Davis Cup semifinal, as well as Marat Safin, who received a wild card from the organizers.
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