Russia easily captured another Fed Cup title by destroying Italy 4-0 this weekend. They were heavily favoured to win so there wasn’t any suspense on the court. Rather, the suspense was all off-court and caused by the presence of wannebe Russian citizen Maria Sharapova. You see, Sharapova has never represented her homeland Russia in any competition. She’s not even regarded as Russian by her peers because she was raised in Florida and has never supported them before.

Fake, fake, fake…
Sharapova’s visit is nothing more than a PR campaign to market herself as a supportive Russian tennis player for her teammates. It is designed to boost her goodwill image in Russia but most importantly, it gives her a chance to play in the 2008 Olympics.

Russian number one woman, Svetlana Kuznetsova, knows a weasel when she smells it:

“To be honest, I don’t know why she came,” the St Petersburg native, who has never been the best of friends with Sharapova, told Russian media on the eve of the tie.
“What’s the point of coming here all the way from America if you can’t play. She said she wanted to help our preparation and be our practice partner but, to me, if you can’t play how then can you practice? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Russian team-mate Anna Chakvetadze:

“If you haven’t played Fed Cup all year, it wouldn’t be fair just to show up for the final,” she said. “It’s not fair to all the other girls who committed themselves to the team’s cause.”

Sharapova has never supported her teammates or country in the past and she’s only now showing support, albeit fake support, to score brownie points for consideration for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Olympics will be for personal glory and Olympic gold and she couldn’t care less about her country. She wants a worldwide audience for more endorsement deals and $$$ for her bananas. Look up bananagate if you don’t know what I’m talking about.