Russian tennis player and former French open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, has said that she is shocked to hear that she is out of the Russian squad for the London Olympics.
The president of the Tennis Federation of Russia, Shamil Tarpishchev, has announced the Russian squad for the London Olympics. There are six members in the squad. Maria Sharapova will be leading the side. The other members of the squad are Ekaterina Makarova, Nadya Petrova, Maria Kirilenko, Vera Zvonareva and Elena Vesnina. However, Mr. Tarpishchev said that Svetlana Kuznetsova would be the reserved player for the London Olympics.
On being asked about her being selected as the reserved player for the Olympics, Kuznetsova answered that it is quite hard to believe that she has not been included in the main squad. As per Kuznetsova, this news had disturbed her a lot. Kuznetsova had represented Russia in the last two Olympics of 2004 and 2008 which were held in Athens and Beijing respectively. She performed quite well in 2004 and went to the quarter finals. However, she had to suffer a defeat in the quarterfinals. But, the Beijing Olympics was a nightmare for her. She got defeated in the very first round by Li Na of China.
Meanwhile, Kuznetsova has clearly said that she would not be going to London as a reserved player. She said that it would be better to play in some American Tournaments rather than visiting London as a reserved player. The current world ranking of Kuznetsova is 35 which is better than the rankings of the two members of the Russian Olympic squad i.e. Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. Also, Kuznetsova has a decent record at Wimbledon, where the Olympic matches are going to be played. So, the omission of Kuznetsova from the main squad is quite surprising.