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Behind the rise of Russian female tennis
The women’s single tournament in Wimbledon 2004 was amazingly won by the 17-year Old Russian Maria Sharapova. That year young Russians won three out of four female Grand Slams, and 8 players in the World top-15 held a Russian passport.
Young girls from poor backgrounds all over Russia is struggling to make it in professional tennis, to win the big tournaments all over the world, and finally perhaps make it out of the country, like their idols. Whole families are often behind the girls and hope for a brighter future, living in small one-room apartments in the suburbs of Moscow, where the country's two best tennis clubs are situated. All of today’s Russian tennis stars have been through either CSKA or Spartak Tennis Clubs - from the darling Anna Kournikova to Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova.
This new phenomena in the women’s tennis came almost overnight, but today still, more than half the players in the world top 15 are Russians. © CHRISTIAN ALS / INVISION IMAGES
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