[goldenlox]

Olga is 15. Born Aug 24, 1991.

http://photo910.tripod.com/cgi-bin/wta.pl?p1=9211

She has a lot of personality. I hope she plays as feisty as she talks

http://cities.expressindia.com/fulls...?newsid=218581


Russian threesome having a ball on maiden India tour
Anupama Bagri

Kolkata, January 20: Three teenaged girls from Russia are enjoying every moment of their maiden visit to India. “It’s so different in here,” beams 15-year-old Olga Makhova on the sidelines of the ITF Grade III meet at the DKS Sports Complex. Then exchanging a quick glance with her friend Nanuli Pipiya, she giggles before adding: “It’s fascinating to see how women dress here. It’s so different from how women dress back home or say in Europe. We like the sari, it looks classy.” Nanuli though finds the rickshaws very interesting. “We took a ride today and it was great fun,” she says with a laugh.

Pink seems to be a favourite with these girls who can be spotted sharing a joke or two with players from other countries while someone obliges to freeze the moments for them on their digital cameras. They seem to be just another bunch of teenaged girls you come across in your neighbourhood until they tell you that glamour queen Maria Sharapova is not someone they look up to.

While its common knowledge that the Russian diva is not popular back home, it was interesting to hear what these juniors had to say. “She (Sharapova) is a good tennis player. But, young girls like us don’t like her much because she doesn’t live in Russia. She also doesn’t visit Russia too often and doesn’t talk much with the Russian girls,” explains 16-year-old Regina Styagina who admires Anastasia Myskina for she thinks the former French Open champion is a “very clever player on court”.


Olga interrupts the conversation in between and says a touch sarcastically: “We see her (Sharapova) when we go to the US.” (The two-time Grand Slam champion is based there). Adds Olga: “We don’t like her too much as a person. (Nadia) Petrova, on the other hand, is a nice girl.”

Ask these girls why they decided to play the ITF meets here in India while there are similar tournaments going around in every part of the world and Olga comes up with a candid reply. “We heard that the competition here is not that great. But believe me, its wrong. The field is so tough here,” she says. Finally have they heard of any Indian junior player? “Burman”, they say in chorus, referring to city girl Shivika, before the talkative Olga adds: “She’s going to play the qualifiers at the Australian Open. That’s great.”