Vera Zvonareva pulls out of Fed Cup final with shoulder injury – Tennis News
Russian number two, Vera Zvonareva pulled out of the Fed Cup only two days before the final citing a shoulder injury. An ITF event, the Fed Cup is an event for the tennis superstars to perform under the banner of their countries.
Meeting in the final on the 5th of November was the Team Russia as it takes on Team Czech Republic.
Team Russia moved into the final in April after they whitewashed defending champions, Team Italy with a perfect 5-0 win in the semi-final.
Zvonareva was the highest ranked player in the Russian camp as she led the team of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Fed Cup veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Kirilenko. As Zvonareva pulls out of the final tie, she is replaced by doubles
specialist Elena Vesnina.
Vera was coming from a exhilarating event at Istanbul where she competed at the prestigious end-of-the-year Sony Ericsson WTA Championships alongside seven other talented professionals. Zvonareva made it all the way to semi-final
of the event before falling to Victoria Azarenka.
Zvonareva’s absence is surely going to create a lot of trouble for the Russian team despite the home court advantage. Headlining the team from the Czech Republic is the sensation of 2011 and the 2011 Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova.
Coming from a title win against Azarenka at Istanbul and the newly instated world number two, Kvitova is expected to sail through her singles rubbers. However, concern for the Czechs is that Kvitova is the only singles players
expected to make a difference. All other players on the team are either very lowly ranked or doubles specialists.
Team Czech moved into the final after doing away with Team Belgium in the semi-final. The Czechs had to battle long and hard for a close 3-2 win over the Belgians winning only in the doubles rubber.
As Team Russia moves into the final it holds the advantage of playing at home. Tied at two wins each, the two teams have met four times previously. With the absence of their two top ten players, Zvonareva and Maria Sharapova, the
Russians surely have their work cut out for them. As Kuznetsova eyes her fourth title at the Fed Cup, she will have to bring more than her A-game to the mix if she wishes to beat the likes of Kvitova.
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