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Amelie Mauresmo Anna Chakvetadze

Anna Chakvetadze beats Amelie Mauresmo in Open Gaz de France quarterfinals

Top seed Russian Anna Chakvetadze beat home favorite and former world number one Amelie Mauresmo 3-6 6-3 6-3 to reach the Open Gaz de France semifinals where she will face another Frenchwoman, Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli.

The victory is Chakvetadze’s first in four meetings against Mauresmo. The two-time Grand Slam champion Mauresmo won the Parisian tournament in 2001 and 2006 and was the runner-up in 1999, 2003 and 2005. We’re still waiting for her to start making such good results again after a disappointing season 2007 which ruined her confidence.

After the tough and more than two hours long quarterfinal, world number seven Chakvetadze is tired and said it won’t be easy to recover and enter the semifinal clash against third seed Bartoli really fresh. Chakvetadze and Bartoli have met only once so far, that was in Luxembourg last year, and Bartoli won in three sets.

In the other semifinal, Hungarian Agnes Szavay and Russian Elena Dementieva will face each other.

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Anna Chakvetadze Australian Open Maria Kirilenko

Maria Kirilenko beats Anna Chakvetadze, reaches Australian Open fourth round

Seed No.27 Maria Kirilenko defeated sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the third round of the Australian Open.

Robbery-affected Chakvetadze won the opening set in a thrilling tie-breaker. But Kirilenko ignored the fact that her opponent had a fantastic 28-1 win-loss record in Grand Slams after taking the first set, and got her way to victory even though Chakvetadze saved four match points.

BTW: Are you too in love with Maria Kirilenko’s outfit? It’s part of the Spring line from Adidas by Stella McCartney.

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Anna Chakvetadze Maria Sharapova

How was it at Singapore exhibition between Sharapova and Chakvetadze?

There was a lot of talk about the exhibition match between Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze. Weeks before the match everybody was talking about it, Singapore went crazy for Maria. So, now that it’s over, what are people’s impressions? Fellow tennis blogger Nawin attended the event, and his impressions are mixed. I will just sum up what he said in his review, for his detailed story accompanied with photos visit Regentville Tennis Blog.

Nawin is happy that Singapore, after a long time, got the opportunity to welcome two high-profile tennis players. However, he hopes that this was just the beginning of big events organized in Singapore. He’s disappointed because the organization was bad, and the ball boys and girls were slow and uncoordinated. Also, the umpire had to do most of the work because line judges were unsure of the calls. As the match progressed, Maria and Anna clearly became frustrated with this.

Oops, I almost forgot: Maria Sharapova beat Anna Chakvetadze 6-0, 7-6(10).

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Anna Chakvetadze

Anna Chakvetadze can barely feel her fingers since the robbery

Anna Chakvetadze still suffers consequences of the recent robbery of her Moscow house. Chakvetadze’s hands were tied so tightly by the burglars that she still has problems with her left hand.

Russia Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpischev explained to newspaper Sovietskiy Sport:

“Anna has problems with her left hand — she almost cannot feel her fingers, because during the attack her hands were tied very tightly with some ropes.”

He added that Anna has started practicing, but she has not fully recovered, and is hence undergoing acupuncture with a Chinese expert.

Tarpischev also noted that the whole ordeal left Anna quite traumatized, and she doesn’t want to stay at home. No wonder! Especially if you consider that the robbers have promised to come back!

Reminder: Chakvetadze is scheduled to play an exhibition match with fellow Russian Maria Sharapova on December 30 in Singapore.

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Anna Chakvetadze

Robbers promised to come back to Chakvetadze ?

The world’s sixth-ranked player Anna Chakvetadze was robbed in her Moscow house on Tuesday, and now, as the time passes, we’re getting new information. Nina from Tennis Info Blog extracted a number of details from the Russian press.

The most shocking thing is that, according to Tvoii Den, the robbers told the tennis star: “Keep playing, we will be back!” What?

According to Anna and her family, the thieves were speaking Russian with Moldavian accent. It was obvious that they were very familiar with the house. There is a suspicion that the former construction workers of the house were involved, but no official information has been released on this yet.

Despite the horrible situation, Chavetadze is not intending to leave Russia. Also, she doesn’t want to change her plans regarding tennis and is expected to travel to Sydney and compete in the Medibank International.

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Anna Chakvetadze

Anna Chakvetadze tied up, her Moscow house robbed

Oh my God, I still haven’t recovered from the scandal regarding supposed marriage plans of Nicole Vaidisova and Radek Stepanek, and now I hear that Anna Chakvetadze was robbed! It’s difficult to process so much shocking news in such a short period. Anyway, to get to the point — masked robbers broke into Anna Chakvetadze’s house in southwest Moscow early on Tuesday and stole money and valuables worth about five million rubles, or roughly $202,000. Luckily, Anna escaped unharmed.

Six robbers climbed over the fence, broke into the house, and tied up a maid in another building. They forced the maid to hand over a remote control which enabled them to enter the house through the garage. Then, Anna was tied up with her parents and robbed.

Anna’s father Jamal Chakvetadze appeared on Russian TV saying: “They started to beat me up, I resisted, then they hit me either with their hands or a pistol. It was dark, told me I had a child there, reminded me about it, so that I gave them everything. So I did.” Jamal also showed scabbed-over bruises on his scalp, cheek and forehead. Here you can watch the video from the Russian TV.

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Anna Chakvetadze Maria Sharapova WTA Finals

Sharapova dominates Chakvetadze to reach Sony Ericsson Championships final

World No.6 Maria Sharapova defeated Russian compatriot Anna Chakvetadze 6-2 6-2 on Saturday at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid.

World No.7 Chakvetadze started the match well, winning her first service game and even having a break point on Sharapova’s serve. However, Sharapova won the game with a fantastic second serve to even the score to 1-1. Since then, the 20-year-old Sharapova broke her opponent twice and took a 4-1 lead. This vividly demotivated Chakvetadze, and it became clear that the first set was over for her.

The second set was a continuation of a desperate situation for Anna Chakvetadze. Sharapova had an opportunity to break her opponent in the first game of the set! And what happened…Chakvetadze gave away her first service game by foot faulting and then making her second double fault. Chances of Chakvetadze bringing back her mental strength and hope then became minimal.

In this match, Sharapova obviously showed much better tennis than Chakvetadze, but Chakvetadze could have increased her chances only if she had converted some of five break points she had.

Even though she lost this semifinal, Anna Chakvetadze can be very satisfied with what she has achieved, both at the tournament in Madrid and in 2007 season.

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Anna Chakvetadze Jelena Jankovic WTA Finals

Jelena Jankovic succumbs to unstoppable Anna Chakvetadze in Madrid

World No.3 Jelena Jankovic was too weak to defeat motivated Anna Chakvetadze Thursday at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid. The Russian won 6-4 0-6 6-3 and secured her place in the semifinals (next to Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, and Ana Ivanovic). My overall impression was that Chakvetadze was determined and motivated, while Jankovic looked tired and burned out.

After winning the opening set, Chakvetadze slept through the next seven games. The 20-year-old Russian entered the second set too relaxed, and quickly saw herself in a situation of being a break down in a decider. But from then on, things started to change. Jankovic permitted Chakvetadze to break back and revive her powerful game. In the third game of the final set, you could smell the end of Jankovic; revived Chakvetadze won her service game, and since then the Serb started being inferior and had to fight hard to stay in the match. But Chakvetadze was unstoppable! When Chakvetadze served for the match, Jankovic had her last chance — the Serb evened to 30-30, after an exhausting but fantastic defense. Still, Jankovic wasn’t strong enough to fight the motivated Russian and had to say goodbye to the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Championships.

It’s sad that Jelena Jankovic, a player with such a great year, couldn’t collect enough energy to finish the season playing as well as she’s capable of.

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Anna Chakvetadze Serena Williams WTA Finals

Injured Serena Williams retires against Anna Chakvetadze in Madrid

Serena Williams was forced to retire from her first match at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Championships because of a left knee injury. Having lost the opening set 4-6, Williams shook hands with Chakvetadze, and left the court in tears.

The Russian was sad that she won the match in this way, but the triumph is very important to her since it keeps her in competition for the semifinals (Chakvetadze lost her first match at the WTA Championships to defending champion Justine Henin).

I still don’t know if Serena will be able to quickly recover from the injury and continue to compete at the season-ending Championships, but if not, Marion Bartoli will take her place as she is the first alternate.

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Anna Chakvetadze Patty Schnyder Upper Austria Ladies Linz

Schnyder makes short work of Chakvetadze at Linz Open

Sixth-seeded Patty Schnyder needed only 39 minutes to crush top-seeded Anna Chakvetadze 6-1, 6-0 Friday and reach the semifinals of the Generali Ladies Linz.

Look at these facts: Chakvetadze made 24 unforced errors, scored only six points on her opponent’s serve, and she won her only serving game after facing two break points! No wonder the Russian described the Linz Open quarterfinal as her worst match of the year.

Chakvetadze is now withdrawing from an event next week in Quebec in order to prepare for the season-ending Championships in Madrid but her confidence is low.

“Now I’m already thinking if it’s a good thing that I qualify for there because with this kind of game I don’t know what I’m going to do there,” Chakvetadze told reporters.

In the semifinals Patty Schnyder will face third-seeded Marion Bartoli, who defeated Julia Vakulenko in the quarterfinals. Second seed Daniela Hantuchova also reached the semis, and will play against either Nicole Vaidisova or Dinara Safina. (sources: ESPN, Reuters)

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