Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has withdrawn from Russia's Fed Cup team, which plays the USA team in the semifinals this weekend in Birmingham, Alabama. Pavlyuchenkova, ranked number 29 in the world, remains injured, after withdrawing from Charleston. Also too hurt to play in Fed Cup are Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alisa Kleybanova. Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova turned down invitations to play in Birmingham. As of now, the Russian Fed Cup team will have only three members--Elena Dementieva, Ekaterina Makaorova and Alla Kudryattseva.
Dominika Cibulkova, also injured, has withdrawn from the Slovak Republic's Fed Cup World Group playoff competition against Serbia. Jelena Jankovic has an injured wrist, but will attempt to play for Serbia.
And now Venus and Clijsters have pulled out of Stuttgart. I guess that answers the question that Venus was not just not attempting to play Fed Cup. For some reason this season seems to be inundated with injuries of a lot of the top players. Most of the injuries are to my mind career threatening as they involve joints which are harder to heal than any other part of the body. One thing that has upset me greatly in this whole reporting of Venus not playing Fed Cup is the response by tennis writers as well as the comments attributed to members of the Fed Cup team as well as the Fed Cup captain herself. I have to say a lot of the comments have left a bad taste in my mouth and as a sign of protest I will not be watching this weekend. Very disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI'm not happy about it, either, Karen. Not only is Venus injured, but there is no law that says she has to play Fed Cup matches until she retires.
ReplyDeleteI also think that MJF should have just gotten her team ready, stopped sending messages to Venus, and made sure that the younger team members had a minimally stressful experience before the semifinal.
On the other hand, no one has invited me to be Fed Cup captain :)
So then, I am not sure who will win the Fed Cup tie. It could be very interesting. I can't believe all the injuries in all of tennis. Please clue me in on this in case I missed something: I know for some time that Venus was saying that the taping was supportive. Also the Williams per Venus, don't discuss their injuries. I just wanted to know if she said what the injury was because I hate to see her be out for so long with the good start she has had.
ReplyDeleteAs for Fed Cup. I think the whole thing was mismanaged by MJF. You don't sit around and wait to see if some injury will magically get better within two days of an event. It all sends bad signals to the rest of the team and to Venus-Serena.
Venus always says the taping is "supportive," and keeps playing until she can't. It's her knee.
ReplyDeleteThe woman is 29 years old. In another 2 months she will be 30. I cannot believe that people are actually questioning her injuries. No one has a problem believing Nadal when he talks about his knees. He withdraws from tournaments and all of tennis is wringing their hands wondering whether his career is over and he is only 23. Sharapova is 23 as well and has not played a full schedule, including Fed Cup since 2007. The last time she played a tournament she lost and then withdrew from the next one with a bone bruise to her elbow. No one questions the legitimacy of these injuries. Venus does not talk about her injuries. I have been following her career ever since she came on Tour as she and her sister brought me to tennis and I cannot believe that people do not believe that her injury is legitimate. I am wondering at what point she is going to take some time off and have surgery on the knee like she did with her wrist a while back. These ladies are not getting any younger and it would seem as if everyone wants them to play a full schedule as if they were 16 years old. Is it because they are black that the stereotype is being perpetrated that they can withstand everything. This is just making me ill because I can recall in 2005 and 2007 after winning Wimbledon Venus went out and played 2 singles sets as well as doubles trying to get the US into a final in Fed Cup and almost destroyed her career doing it and someone like Liezel Huber is questioning her patriotism. I knew I never liked that girl and she just gave me another reason to dislike her intensely.
ReplyDeleteI've wondered whether Venus is going to get surgery, too. She says she wants to play in the Olympics, and I just wonder if her knee can go that long without surgery.
ReplyDelete