Kazakhstan Imports Hottie
Kazakhstan has made a deal with 19-year old Sesil Karatantcheva, the once up and coming tennis star who was ranked 35th in the world, and mentioned in the same breath as Ivanovic and Sharapova, before being banned for 2 years for doping. She was 16 at the time and became the first woman to be banned for steroid use. She claimed then that the positive result was due to pregnancy, and when no baby arrived she claimed that she miscarried but the International Tennis Federation didn’t buy it.
One interview on the subject makes it clear she did something, but note the ambiguity as to whether she is talking about getting pregnant or doping:
I just decided that I wanted to do it, and I did it, and then things got out of control…[I was not aware of] certain protection issues and then it just happened. …You are a man and I do not expect you to understand. I just wanted to do it, took the decision and did it.from Bad Jocks
She also once threatened to kick Maria Sharapova’s “butt off” when she felt that Sharaphova had insulted her in practice.
She has not become more articulate or insightful in the past two years, saying of her comeback:
You probably think I’m slow and old, but I still have some fightback…Especially in women’s tennis you can expect anything…It doesn’t matter if you’re losing five-love or 40-love, a woman’s mind is just anti-logic. You can just click, come back.from the Sydney Morning Herald
However she did beat Venus Williams in the 2005 French Open to enter the quarterfinals and she may have the potential to be an excellent player. Secretly, we here at KZBlog suspect Kazakhstan wanted her because she’s kind of hot. It will certain raise the profile of tennis here as the sexy Kornikova did once in Russia; look at Russia’s current domination of women’s tennis. Maybe in ten years, they will all be Kazakhs.
Karatantcheva, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, will become a Kazakhstan citizen and play here for at least three years.
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I feel this could easily be another Borat situation, where if you look at the central character’s (whether they be ‘real’ life or fiction) modus operandi, and potential down falls for Kazakhstan’s image, you have to balance it with simply getting Kazakhstan in the globe’s press. Once people start losing that blank expression when you tell them that you (/used to) live in Kazakhstan, maybe we can be more selective about figureheads, but for now, with Sesil’s assets, I’ll be happy just to closely monitor text & image output online ;)
Comment by ChrisM — 16 January 2009 @ 8:42 pm
Yeah, I failed to mention that I have no problem with Kazakhstan bringing more sexy chicks out here at all. Particularly if they’re going to get a lot of press time!
Comment by KZBlog — 17 January 2009 @ 9:31 am
She’s not hot. I got burger salesgirls in my neighborhood who are hotter than her, sorry.
Comment by Mike Johnston — 25 June 2009 @ 7:54 pm