Safina in for Chakvetadze as Russians name strong Beijing tennis squad

Dinara Safina (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)Photo Gallery>>(BEIJING, June 24) -- Russia has named a strong tennis squad for August's Beijing Olympic Games with four top ten players representing their women's team.

Maria Sharapova, ranked second on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) list, leads the way with Svetlana Kuznetsova (WTA No 4) and Elena Dementieva (WTA No 5).

The only slight surprise is World No 9 Dinara Safina, replacing No 8 player Anna Chakvetadze, as the fourth member of the Russian team.

"Chakvetadze had asked not to include her in the team," said Shamil Tarpishchev, of the Russian Tennis Association. She has suffered with stress since an armed robbery at her Moscow house late last year and failed to reach the third round of this year's French Open.

Safina, the younger sister of top former world men's player Marat Safin, reached the final of the 2008 French Open, losing to world No 1 Ana Ivanovic. This is the first time the 22-year-old has participated in the Olympic Games. She has been in good form and is expected to give an impressive performance.

According to the qualification rules for the Beijing Olympics, the top four players on WTA and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings qualify for the Games automatically.

Tarpishchev also confirmed that the Russian men's team for Beijing will consist of World No 4, Nikolay Davydenko, Mikhail Youzhny, ranked No 7, Dmitry Tursunov (No 33) and Igor Andreev (No 37).