Anna Chakvetadze was named the Female Tennis Player of 2007 yesterday at the National Tennis Awards ceremony in Russia, while the winning Russia Fed Cup team won the Team of 2007 award.

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Members of Russia's winning Fed Cup team have questioned the motives of Maria Sharapova who attended the final against Italy to show her support.

Maria Sharapova has never played Fed Cup for Russia, having had her injuries as a reason, but she has always underlined that she wants to play for her native country. But is Sharapova telling the truth? Many people believe that the 20-year-old from Siberia is just making herself available for Fed Cup in order to be eligible to play at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Kuznetsova, whose victory brought Russia third Fed Cup title on Sunday, made an interesting statement:

"She said she wanted to be our practice partner but if you can't play how then can you practice?" Read more »

Russia won their third Fed Cup title in four years with the victory over last year's surprising champions Italy in the final at Moscow's Luzhniki arena. On Sunday, Svetlana Kuznetsova saved two match points in a second-set tiebreaker before beating Italy's Francesca Schiavone 4-6 7-6 7-5 in the first reverse singles and giving the home team an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Italy.

Heavy favorites Russia had enjoyed a 2-0 lead after day one when Anna Chakvetadze beat Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, and Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Mara Santangelo 6-1 6-2.

In the picture you can see Maria Sharapova celebrating with the Russian team, but she didn't participate in the competition, her role was just that of a supporter. Actually, Sharapova has never played in the Fed Cup, and she was heavily criticized for that.

Here you can see the list of all Fed Cup champions since 1963. (photo via Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog)

Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova scored singles victories for favorite Russia and gave their team a 2-0 lead over holders Italy in the 2007 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final.

Chakvetadze earned a hard-fought 6-4 4-6 6-4 victory over Francesca Schiavone, while Kuznetsova completely dominated Mara Santangelo 6-1, 6-2.

Russia needs just one more point to secure a Fed Cup title. However, there are three matches left, which are to take place during this weekend:

Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) vs. Francesca Schiavone (ITA)
Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) vs. Mara Santangelo (ITA)
Nadia Petrova/Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs. Mara Santangelo/Roberta Vinci (ITA)

(source: On the Baseline)

Interestingly, Maria Sharapova practiced with Russia's Fed Cup team at the Luzhniki Arena in Moscow on Wednesday, even though she won’t play in the September 15-16 final when her country takes on defending champion Italy.

Sharapova's appearance Wednesday was seen as an attempt to improve frosty relations with the team. The 20-year-old still hasn’t played for Russia in the Fed Cup. Citing injuries, she has withdrawn from the Fed Cup on two occasions in 2007, and was heavily criticized for that. (photo via Fed Cup)

Here’s a list of Fed Cup champions since the competition began in 1963. Country with most Fed Cup titles is the United States with seventeen, out of which seven were consecutive. Australia takes the second place with seven titles, while Spain and Czechoslovakia follow with five titles.

2007 Russia beat Italy 4-0
2006 Italy beat Belgium 3-2
2005 Russia beat France 3-2
2004 Russia beat France 3-2
2003 France beat U.S. 4-1
2002 Slovakia beat Spain 3-1
2001 Belgium beat Russia 2-1
2000 U.S. beat Spain 5-0 Read more »

Russia are strongly favored to capture a third Fed Cup title in four years when they take on last year's surprise winners Italy in the Moscow final this weekend. Russian team have US Open 2007 finalist and semifinalist – world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova and world number five Anna Chakvetadze will both play for their country. Italian team, on the other hand, has no player ranked in the world's top 20.

However, Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev said that his players shouldn’t relax: "It looks easy, but it's not. We have to be careful and play smart, otherwise Italy could take advantage of our mistakes."

Just to mention that the Russians enjoy a 3-0 lead over Italy in head-to-head meetings, including a comfortable 4-1 victory in their last clash two years ago.

Russian team: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Nadia Petrova, Elena Vesnina
Captain: Shamil Tarpishchev

Italian team: Francesca Schiavone, Mara Santangelo, Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta
Captain: Corrado Barazzutti

(source: Reuters)

Maria Sharapova was criticized a lot lately since she withdrew from the Fed Cup on two occasions in 2007; actually the 20-year-old is yet to make a Fed Cup appearance for her native country.

Both times the highest-ranked Russian player pulled out because of injuries, but after the second withdrawal, which was at the last minute, Russian tennis officials accused her of putting her own interests ahead of her country.

"I'm telling you, just forget about all these promises," said Russia's chief tennis coach Vladimir Kamelzon. "Her closest advisers are Americans and they would never allow her to play for Russia," he added. Read more »

Serena Williams is pulling out of the United States' Fed Cup semifinal against Russia because of injuries sustained during her fourth-round victory at Wimbledon when she strained her left calf and hurt her left wrist and thumb. Williams will be replaced by Meilen Tu.

On Tuesday, the eight-time Grand Slam singles champion also pulled out of next week's Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Ohio.

Russian team had some withdrawals as well: world No. 2 Maria Sharapova won’t play at this weekend’s Fed Cup due to her shoulder injury, and Russian media reported that world No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova would pull out, too.

Serena and her older sister Venus were part of the four-player team announced June 27 by U.S. captain Zina Garrison, along with doubles specialist Lisa Raymond and teenager Vania King. (source: ESPN)

For the first time in 40 years, snow fell in Cordoba, Argentina on Monday, but it was cleared so that Argentina and Canada could practice for their World Group II play-off tie this weekend. Luckily, it is expected that for the weekend the weather will be sunny and temperatures will be of around 15 degrees Celsius.

Argentine team is led by Gisela Dulko, accompanied by Jorgelina Cravero, Maria-Emilia Salerni and Betina Jozami. Members of Canadian team are Aleksandra Wozniak, Stephanie Dubois, Marie-Eve Pelletier and Valerie Tetreault. (source: Fed Cup)