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The big story in women's tennis this year has not been about an individual player. It's been about an empire. And an unlikely one at that.

Russia's history for producing female tennis stars had rivaled its history for producing hip-hop impresarios and fluffy easy-to-read novels. But this year Mother Russia has spawned the last three Grand Slam Winners on the WTA Tour (Anastasia Myskina, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova), five of the last six Major finalists and seven of the top-16 players. At this week's WTA Championships in Los Angeles, non-Russians are in the minority as Soviettes comprise five of the eight players in the field.

This hasn't been a total surprise. Had you looked at the provenance of the top junior players a few years ago or considered the galvanic impact of Anna Kournikova (remember her?) in the former Soviet Union, you knew there was groundswell of talent. But Phil Johnston actually did something about his premonition.

A hard-core tennis fan and a recovering lawyer, Johnston. 36, bought some video equipment and left his south Florida base for Russia, where he had once lived as a journalist. Camera in hand, he toured Moscow's Spartak Club (the Cotton Club for Russian tennis), seeking old coaches, administrators and tennis journalists (self included) for interviews.

The result of 18 months of filming is a compelling 43-minute documentary tentatively titled Anna's Army: Behind the Ride of Russian Women's Tennis. "I knew how few tennis players Russia had produced, how few courts there were and how hard it is to play," says Johnston, who is fluent in Russia. "So clearly these players needed a ton of drive to make it. And clearly there was a real story there."

Johnston did his homework, and the film probes much deeper than the usual cultural examinations of the "Russian Revolution." But the real winners are in the old footage Johnston was able to procure. A snippet of grainy home video reveals five-year-olds Elena Dementieva, Myskina and Dinara Safina taking a group lesson together. (Dementieva and Myskina played in the 2004 French Open final while Safina is currently a top-50 pro.) Another scene depicts small girls drilling on an indoor court in the dead of winter, so cold they are swaddled in jackets.

Though Johnston and his film-making partner, Peter Geisler, a former bond trader, were strangers to the tennis subculture, they quickly proved their bona fides, built up trust and, with the WTA's help, interviewed every player of significance.

Kournikova, not known as an accommodating type, granted them a lengthy sit-down. Sharapova sent word through her people that she didn't want to be featured alongside the other Russians. Undeterred, Johnston and Geisler ambushed Sharapova's postmatch news conference at the Berlin tournament and asked enough questions to get their sound bites.

A number of networks have expressed interest in buying the rights to the film, but Johnston discovered that making a movie is easier -- and more fun -- than selling it. (Johnston will sell you an individual DVD if you e-mail him at Pjohnston101@yahoo.com.)

Still, it's a hell of a first effort. And he's predicting the Russian reign is no short-term trend. This wave of success "isn't about money and great facilities for training -- the courts at Spartak haven't been resurfaced in decades," he said. "But there's a hunger I don't think exists anywhere else."

Random musings

There's no doubt Ron Artest is a rare bird. But we've always found him to be endearingly wacky -- and not nearly as menacing or as malevolent as he's cracked up to be. This is a guy who, while playing for the Chicago Bulls, applied for a job at Circuit City because he could get an employee discount on hi-fi equipment. Nevertheless, his latest venture into the wilderness of surreal may be the last straw. Regrettably, we agree with this column. That said, who else would pay good money for a tape of the conversation where he approaches Larry Bird in week two of the season and requests some time off to complete his rap album? ...

The Primoz Brezec era has begun. ...

Based on how he's running the Knicks, Isiah Thomas' tenure running the CBA is a Wharton case study. When did we decide that nice ties plus a nice smile equals business acumen? ...

Can we agree that weddings, bar mitzvahs and other catered affairs would be infinitely better if they just continued serving the food from the cocktail hour as a main course? ...

The Wally Backman news cycle has passed. But it bears mention that he doesn't get an informational interview for the D'Backs job if Jerry Colangelo is still running the show. ...

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers tennis for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.