Kournikova needs wild card at Kremlin

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Anna Kournikova will probably only be able to play at next month's Ladies Kremlin Cup if she receives a WTA wildcard, tournament organisers said on Friday.

Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Jelena Dokic and Martina Hingis will head a top-quality field for the $1,224,000 event, making it difficult for the organisers to find places in the main draw for several talented local players.

"It's probably the biggest tournament we ever had," Kremlin Cup chairman and president of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev told Reuters.

"We have five players who are ranked in the top 10 in the world coming here and it will make for very exciting tennis.

"Right now, even a top attraction like Anna Kournikova is not in the main draw, so she will either have to play qualifiers or we have to give her a wildcard," he added.

"But the problem is that we only have two wildcards to offer, while the WTA has the other two."

Tarpishchev said he was considering giving wildcards any two of Elena Bovina, Dinara Safina or Svetlana Kuznetsova.

"Bovina surely deserves one because she has never turned down a chance to play for her country in Fed Cup matches, while Safina and Kuznetsova have shown the biggest improvement at the moment," he said.

"We're banking that the WTA will give one of their wildcards to Kournikova. Otherwise, we're going to have a problem."

Safina, the younger sister of former U.S. Open champion Marat Safin, at 16 became the youngest Russian to win a WTA event last month when she triumphed in the Polish Open.

Kuznetsova, who is only a year older, matched Safina's achievement by winning her first WTA title -- the Helsinki Open -- earlier this month.

"So, this is how it stands at the moment, but of course everything can change overnight," Tarpishchev said.

"What if one of them wins the U.S. Open? Then, we'll be talking a very different story here."

The Tier I Ladies Kremlin Cup will be held from September 30 to October 6 at Moscow's Olimpiisky Sports Complex at the same time that the ATP Tour's men's event takes place.

 

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