June 30, 2008
As the women's draw in the year's grand slam tournament at Wimbledon enters the last 16 on Monday, it can't have escaped many tennis fans' attention just how many Russian players are still left in the competition.
World number two and darling of many a centre court Maria Sharapova might have made an untimely and unexpected early exit in the second round and Roland Garros finalist, Dinara Safina, may have followed her a round later, but there are still six of Russian women left in play as the tournament enters its second week.
Alla Kudryavtseva, the relatively unknown outsider ranked just 103 in the world, who unceremoniously dumped Sharapova out of the competition in that second round match will square up against fellow countrywoman and 21-seeded Nadia Petrova on court number three on Monday. So at least one Russian is guaranteed of making her way through to the quarterfinals.
And in the day's other matches there'll be four more Russian women vying for a place in the last eight - Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Elena Dementieva and Alisa Kleybanova.
Kuznetsova probably has the best chance of going furthest in the competition. Ranked fourth in the world and in the tournament, the 23-year-old is by far the most successful of the sextet.
Just a couple of weeks ago she made it as far as the semi-finals of Roland Garros, before going out in a slugathon to Safina. And she has made it to the final of a grand slam tournament three times, winning once against Dementieva in the 2004 US Open.
At 26 years of age, Dementieva is the oldest of the Russian women in the fourth round and in spite of two appearances in Grand Slam finals has never made it beyond the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. She'll face Safina's conqueror in the previous round, Israel's Shahar Peer.
Meanwhile world and tournament ranked number eight, Anna Chakvetadze, who has already gone further than on all her previous Wimbledon appearances, takes on Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic. The two women have met just twice before - back in 2006 - with Vaidisova winning both times.
With many of the favourites already out - at least in the women's draw - this could be the chance for one of the less fancied Russian players to make her mark, such as the 18-year-old Alisa Kleybanova.
Without doubt though Kleybanova, ranked 42 in the world, faces the toughest task of all the Russian women as she takes on the might of none other than defending champion and four-times Wimbledon winner, Venus Williams.
Once again the older of the Williams' sisters is on a roll, playing her usual mix of hot-and-cold tennis after coming back from a third round defeat at the French Open.
And let's face it, with Serena in the other half of the draw, who would bet against seeing at least one of them - if not both, reaching the final?
But if either of them, or the top-ranked player still left in the competition, Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, wants to hold that trophy aloft come the weekend, they'll probably have to get past a Russian woman or two on the way.
Johnny Summerton is a Paris-based broadcaster, writer and journalist. For more on what's making the headlines here in France, log on to his site at http://www.persiflagefrance.com
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