In Davis Cup, Russia Can Reap From the Ground It Broke
In a quick-shifting country where plenty of power has accumulated in the hands of a few, tennis is no exception.
Shamil Tarpishchev might not look the part of a kingpin when he sits semislumped on a bench in a Russian warm-up suit during the Davis Cup final that begins here Friday against Argentina. But it is Tarpishchev, 58, not his top players Nikolay Davydenko and Marat Safin, who is the heaviest hitter in Russian tennis.
A former Russian sports minister and the personal coach to Boris N. Yeltsin, Tarpishchev is the only person in the game doing triple duty as Davis Cup captain, Fed Cup captain and president of his national federation.
He is also a survivor. He has successfully navigated the changes in Russian sport and society and maintained his influence with discretion, which is part of the reason he has maintained it.
'Maybe the secret is that tennis, for a long time, was not important to anybody here,' he said Thursday.
Times have changed, as the buzz at Thursday's Davis Cup draw in the Olympic Stadium made clear. The pivotal moments were tennis's re-entering the Olympics in 1988 and Yeltsin's discovering a passion for the game during his tenure as Russia's first president from 1991 to 1999. 'At that stage, the middle level of tennis was not bad, but when Yeltsin came out in a tennis outfit on court, at that moment the whole thing took a leap,' Tarpishchev said. 'The mass media, the TV, everything came in, and the good thing was that it came at a time when we had already prepared the ground before.'
Now comes the reaping. You can make a strong argument that Russia, with its combined strength in the men's and women's game, is the leading tennis nation in the world. Traditional powers Australia and the United States are reeling and slumping. Belgium has great women's players but no great men. Spain has terrific men but no terrific women. Switzerland has Roger Federer, of course, and a solid supporting cast in Martina Hingis, Patty Schnyder and Stanislas Wawrinka, but cannot match the Russians' depth.
Maria Sharapova, Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova have won women's Grand Slam singles titles in the past three years. Davydenko, a whippet of a counterpuncher, is ranked third in the world and was a United States Open semifinalist this year. Safin won the 2000 United States Open and the 2005 Australian Open, but he has not won any tournament since because of a lingering knee injury and his mercurial temperament.
But after dropping to 104th in the world rankings in August, he has worked his way back to No. 25 and is wearing a lean and hungry look this week, shouting and hurling rackets in practice. He was the dominant force when Russia won its first Davis Cup, in Paris in 2002. He swept his two singles matches against the French before Mikhail Youzhny finished off the victory with an improbable rally from two sets down against Paul-Henri Mathieu in the fifth match.
Safin would love to salvage this season by leading Russia to its first Davis Cup title on home ground. He will play one of Friday's singles matches, facing Argentina's No. 1 player, David Nalbandian. In the opening match, Davydenko will face Juan Ignacio Chela, who was picked by the Argentine captain, Alberto Mancini, largely because he has a 5-0 career edge over Davydenko.
Safin described his past year as one filled with injury and bad luck. 'A lot of things went the wrong way,' he said. 'So the only thing that really can make this year worth it is I think the Davis Cup.'
The counterpoint to Safin's experience is Dmitry Tursunov, the curly-topped, part-time blogger who moved to California at 12 and is still based there. 'I didn't even watch the final in 2002,' Tursunov said. 'I was in the States. You kind of hope something like this happens when you are growing up. You always want it. But I definitely didn't think in 2006 I would be in the finals.'
Tursunov, who said he once unsuccessfully applied for an American green card, is typical of his generation in that he has honed his game abroad but still represents Russia. There has been some talent drain. Anna Smashnova left for Israel, but that was the exception. Safin and Kuznetsova trained in Spain as teenagers. Davydenko based himself in Germany. Sharapova has been based in the United States since she was 9.
Tarpishchev says the early experiences are the ones that create the emotional ties, and though he is one of those working hard to create more training options and academies in Russia, he said that the system of studying abroad had had some advantages.
'If a player is good and stays here after 14, the next kid coming up doesn't have room to play and develop, so I have urged them to go,' he said. 'That way, we get the world to work for us.'
TENNIS