Russia Fed Cup Coach Slams 'Crumbling' Clay Court

© RIA Novosti . Alexander Vilf / Go to the mediabankShamil Tarpishchev
Shamil Tarpishchev - Sputnik International
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Russia's Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev has blasted the "crumbling" clay court that will play host to this weekend's semifinal against Serbia.

Russia's Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev has blasted the "crumbling" clay court that will play host to this weekend's semifinal against Serbia.

Organizers have laid the temporary court on top of an ice rink at the Megasport Arena in Moscow.

"I'm not happy with the surface," Tarpishchev said. "The difficulties came from the fact that it was put on ice," he said.

"The clay crumbles. Today we have had a meeting, we'll invite experts to improve it somehow."

Tarpishchev noted that neither the Russians nor the Serbian tennis players were satisfied with the court, saying logistics for the match had been completely mismanaged.

"There wasn't a great approach to the tender for determining who will lay the surface. From a professional point of view there were a lot of mistakes in the installation."

For the weekend's match, Tarpishchev is fielding Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Maria Kirilenko and Elena Vesnina.

Serbia is led by world No. 15 Ana Ivanovic, with Jelena Jankovic, Bojana Jovanovski and Aleksandra Krunic completing the four.

Four-time Fed Cup champion Russia is considered the favorite, with a 3-0 head-to-head record over the Serbs. The last encounter was a 3-2 victory for the Russians in Belgrade in 2010.

Russia lost last year's final to the Czech Republic.

 

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