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ROLAND GARROS (Paris, France; red clay; Grand Slam)
============= http://www.rolandgarros.com/
Contents
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1. Photos & videos
2. Quarter-final scoreboard-report: Chakvetadze v Sharapova
3. Player-portrait: Anna Chakvetadze

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1. Photos & videos
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1.1 Photos
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Anna Chakvetadze and Maria Sharapova:
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=chakvetadze
http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/players/wtaq416.html (Anna)
http://www.theannachakvetadze.com/ (Anna)
http://www.tennis-reinecke.de/spieler.php?kez=anch (Anna)
Search Getty Images for "chakvetadze"

Various players including Anna:
http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/photogallery/ (Quarterfinal
action)
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/gallery?pg=1&cap=1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/6722585.stm
http://www.tennis.info/Paris7.html (Quarterfinals - day 1)


1.2 Videos
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Quarter-final press-conferences:
http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/news/interviews/20070605.html

Anna interviewed by Barbara Schett:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/230b/popup/index.php?cl=2928688

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2. Quarter-final scoreboard-report: Chakvetadze v Sharapova
(Tuesday 5th June)
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Very nice winner, very nice loser:
+ MARIA SHARAPOVA [2,EF] d. ANNA CHAKVETADZE [9,EF], 6-3 6-4

Unfortunately BBCi did not deign to televise this mouthwatering match
on Court Suzanne Lenglen, but it certainly seemed like Maria's most
convincing performance of the tournament so far, after her alarming
breakdown for half a set against Alla Kudryavtseva, and then saving
two match-points against Patty Schnyder, who served for the match
three times in that 2h38m marathon on Sunday.

But Anna was the one who admitted to feeling tired and "very bad" in
this quarter-final, even after having a day off on Monday. She too
had been taken to three sets on Sunday (by Lucie Šafárová), albeit
only for 1h29m. I think Anna needs to work on her stamina!

I have added my match-report to my French Open reports for Maria
Sharapova:
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/shara/french_open2007.html

Features:
* match-preview
* point-by-point scores
* statistics
* transcripts of press-conferences
* articles

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3. Player-portrait: Anna Chakvetadze
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Saturday, June 2, 2007
By Benjamin Adler
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2q2w2z (www.rolandgarros.com)
>>>
Anna Chakvetadze broke into the top 10 at the end of May - four short
years after turning pro - and she does not intend stopping there.
We met the 20 year-old Russian and found her cool, calm, and fiercely
determined to succeed at the highest level.

"I don't need inspiration, I can think for myself," she tells us,
shortly after her comfortable victory over Ai Sugiyama. On the back
of her quarter-final at the Australian Open, the No.9 seed has taken
her progress to the last sixteen very much in her stride. "I'm happy
because I played a lot better today, which explains why I was calmer
on the court. I controlled things well," she says in flawless English.

"I'm ambitious"

Chakvetadze is accompanied on Tour by her Georgian father while her
Ukrainian mother looks after her younger brother at home. She needs
no prompting when we ask her about her ambitions. "I'm not the type
to announce what my objectives are: to win a Grand Slam or whatever.
Everyone wants to win them. I'd like to get into the top 5 for sure,
but I take things as they come and try to do my best."

Anna has something of a reputation for being very emotional on court,
even to the point of breaking into tears. Though she travels without
a coach, she has been receiving guidance from Robert Lansdorp, the
former mentor of Maria Sharapova, Pete Sampras and Anastasia Myskina.
That is in Los Angeles, where she will return to prepare for the
North American leg of the tour, prior to the US Open. Chakvetadze has
been compared to Martina Hingis, with a game that is more varied than
many of her compatriots. That may go to explain her meteoric rise
through the rankings since her début on the ITF tour in 2001, in
Minsk.

Moscow memories
By 2004 she was playing in her first Grand Slam, at the US Open,
where she reached the third round, beating Myskina on the
way. "That's a great memory. I couldn't believe it at the time.
It was a dream to beat the No.1 Russian - someone who had won Roland
Garros that year," remembers the Wimbledon juniors finalist of 2003.

2005 saw her enter the top 50, and in 2006 she won her first two
titles, in Guangzhou and her home-town of Moscow. "To win the Kremlin
Cup at home was fantastic. The win in China gave me a lot of
confidence. When I beat a top-10 player, I tell myself I can really
go far and my game improves," she says. Anna has a title to her name
this year too, in Hobart, and made the semi-finals in Miami, Warsaw
and Montréal.

"It's important to be consistent", reasons the future opponent of
Lucie Šafárová - a friend among many on the circuit. "I have a lot of
friends on Tour, but we forget our friendship when we meet on court,"
says Chakvetadze. Whether she is facing friend or foe, Anna
Chakvetadze knows she only needs to concentrate on her own game.
Her natural talent usually does the rest...
<<<

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/chakv/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Anna_Chakvetadze/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeldani/