Russian Tennis Federation is a national governing body of tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It is the successor of the All-Russia Tennis Association (1989-2001) and the Tennis Federation of the USSR (1959-93). After the dissolution of All-Russia Tennis Association in 2001, it was organized and registered as supreme governing body of tennis sport in Russia in 2002.

Tennis in Russia

Since the end of the Soviet era tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 has grown in popularity and Russia has produced a number of famous tennis players. In recent years, the amount of top Russian women players has been considerable, with both Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...

 and Dinara Safina

Dinara Safina

Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....

 reaching number one in the WTA rankings. Other Russian women to achieve international success include Anna Chakvetadze

Anna Chakvetadze

Anna Djambulilovna Chakvetadze is a Russian professional tennis player . On September 10, 2007, she reached her career-high professional singles ranking of World No. 5. She has won eight WTA Singles Titles and appeared in the 2007 US Open semifinals. As of July 4, 2011, Chakvetadze is ranked World...

, Elena Dementieva

Elena Dementieva

Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva is a retired Russian professional tennis player. Dementieva is most notable for winning the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won 16 WTA singles titles and reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open. Dementieva achieved a...

, Svetlana Kuznetsova

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...

, Anastasia Myskina

Anastasia Myskina

Anastasiya Andreyevna Myskina is a professional tennis player from Russia. She won the 2004 French Open singles title, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to win a Grand Slam main draw singles title. Subsequent to this victory she rose to number 3 on the WTA ranking, becoming the first...

, Nadia Petrova

Nadia Petrova

Nadezhda Viktorovna Petrova is a Russian professional tennis player.Overall, she has won 28 WTA Titles, ten in singles and eighteen in doubles. In singles, Petrova has reached a career high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2006 and has reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 2003 and 2005...

, Vera Zvonareva

Vera Zvonareva

Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...

 and Anna Kournikova

Anna Kournikova

Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova is a Russian retired professional tennis player. Her beauty and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars worldwide, despite the fact that she never won a WTA singles title. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name...

. The Russian Federation has won the Fed Cup

Fed Cup

Fed Cup is the premier team competition in women's tennis, launched in 1963 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the International Tennis Federation...

 4 times, in 2004

2004 Fed Cup

The 2004 Fed Cup was the 42nd edition of the most important competition between national teams in women's tennis. 77 nations participated in the tournament...

, 2005

2005 Fed Cup

The 2005 Fed Cup was the 43rd edition of the most important competition between national teams in women's tennis. 76 nations participated in the tournament...

, 2007

2007 Fed Cup

The 2007 Fed Cup is the 45th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in women's tennis. 74 nations participated in the tournament...

 and 2008

2008 Fed Cup

The 2008 Fed Cup was the 46th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in women's tennis. 8 teams contested the World Group, and 85 teams competed in total...

.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Tennis competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 10 to August 17 at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre. The DecoTurf surface rendered the event a hardcourt tournament....

, Russia swept the women's tennis podium with Elena Dementieva

Elena Dementieva

Elena Viatcheslavovna Dementieva is a retired Russian professional tennis player. Dementieva is most notable for winning the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She won 16 WTA singles titles and reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open. Dementieva achieved a...

 winning the gold, Dinara Safina

Dinara Safina

Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....

 and Vera Zvonareva

Vera Zvonareva

Vera Zvonareva is a professional tennis player from Russia. She was introduced to tennis at the age of six and turned professional in 2000. Her career high is World No. 2 by the WTA, and she is currently ranked as the World No. 7. Zvonarёva has won twelve WTA Tour singles titles and reached the...

 the silver and bronze, respectively. As of October 5, 2009, four Russian women were ranked in the WTA tour's top 10.

Russia also boasts two former number 1 men's players—Safina's older brother Marat Safin

Marat Safin

Marat Mikhailovich Safin is a retired Russian tennis player of Tatar descent. Safin won two grand slams and reached the world number 1 ranking during his career. He was also famous for his emotional outbursts and sometimes fiery temper on court. Safin also holds the record for most broken...

 and Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Russia. He won two Grand Slam singles titles , four Grand Slam doubles titles, and the men's singles gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. He also helped Russia win the Davis Cup in 2002...

. Russian men currently in the top 50 include Nikolay Davydenko

Nikolay Davydenko

Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko is a Ukrainian-Russian tennis player. Davydenko's best result in a Grand Slam tournament has been reaching the semifinals, which he has done on four occasions: twice each at the French Open and the U.S. Open. His biggest achievement to date was winning the 2009 ATP...

 and Mikhail Youzhny

Mikhail Youzhny

Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny , is a professional Russian tennis player, noted for his consistency and all-court play style. He has been coached by Boris Sobkin for 17 years....

. The Russian men won the Davis Cup

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

 in 2002

2002 Davis Cup

The 2002 Davis Cup was the 91st edition of the most important tournament between nations in men's tennis. A total of 130 nations participated in the tournament...

 and 2006

2006 Davis Cup

The 2006 Davis Cup was the 95th edition of the most important tournament between nations in men's tennis. Sixteen teams participated in the World Group and 125 participated in total...

.

Accolades

The association has been praised worldwide for of the development of tennis in Russia which resulted top class tennis players, specially women players. According to latest WTA

Women's Tennis Association

The Women's Tennis Association , founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of Women's Professional Tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the Association of...

 rankings; 10 Russian women are in top 50 players of the world.

The association has been honored with the highest award of the European association of Tennis "Tennis Europe

Tennis Europe

Tennis Europe was formed in 1976 by a group of 17 European national tennis federations as a regional governing body for the sport of tennis and under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation...

" - European Tennis Trophy, five consecutively years from 2005 to 2009 on the set of victories in the professional, junior, veteran tennis and wheelchair tennis. Similarly Russia is recognized as the best tennis power in Europe and in certain categories by full twelve times.