From Staff Reports
(December 23, 2011) Twenty-year-old Ksenia Pervak switched her designated country from Russia to Kazakhstan Friday to improve her chances to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.
Pervak has had the best season of her career this year. She won her first WTA Tour title in Tashkent and she went up almost 50 ranking spots to No. 39 at the end of the year.
She joins a host of other Russian imports to Kazakhstan, including WTA No. 58 Galina Voskoboeva and Yaroslava Shvedova. Russian ATP players Mikhail Kukushkin, Andrey Golubev and Evgeny Korolev have also switched to playing for Kazakhstan because the country lends considerable financial support to its players.
Shamil Tarpischev, Russia’s longtime Davis and Fed Cup captain, said he had no problem with Pervak switching because there is an agreement between the Russian and Kazakhstan Tennis Federations to support each other.
“I don’t have a problem with this as there is an agreement between our tennis federations to help each other out. This has managed to help a lot of tennis players, as they have been able to get extra funding from the Kazakh federation, which helps them to develop,” Tarpischev said.
“There were problems in Russia, as we were unable to give them the financing they needed since we have so many good players.”
Vladimir Kamelzon, a coach for the Russian team, was less understanding.
“I'm upset and angry about Pervak's switch to the Kazakhstan national team, I just can't understand Pervak's decision, and I will never accept it,” Kamelzon said to RIA Novosti.
Pervak wouldn’t have qualified to represent Russia in the Olympics, as she would have been the seventh-ranked player. Instead, she is now the top-ranked Kazakh player, which means she could qualify for the Olympics.