Tennis: Marat Safin will represent Russia in next month's Davis Cup semi-final against the US in Moscow despite dropping out of the top 100 and disappointing team captain Shamil Tarpishchev with his attitude.
Last week Safin moved out of the top 100 in the ATP rankings for the first time since making his professional debut at a 17-year-old in 1997.
The former world number one, who has been struggling to recover from a knee injury, decided to take a break from his Swedish coach Peter Lundgren earlier this month.
Safin has not won a title since beating Lleyton Hewitt in the Australian Open final in January 2005.
"Quite honestly, I'm disappointed with his game and his attitude," Tarpishchev said. "But you can never count him out. He has been the key to our success in Davis Cup in the past and I'm sure, he'll do all he can to help us against the US once again."
Tarpishchev has named world number six Nikolay Davydenko and Safin along with Dmitry Tursunov, 2002 Davis Cup hero Mikhail Youzhny and newcomer Evgeny Korolev for the September 22nd-24th tie at the Olympic stadium.
"Too bad that Igor Andreev is still out injured but even without him we have a very strong team," said Tarpishchev. "Besides, we're playing at home and on our preferred surface clay. It should give us the edge."
"Korolev did very well at this year's French Open while Davydenko and Tursunov are also doing well at the moment."
Korolev, an 18-year-old cousin of Anna Kournikova, reached the second round at Roland Garros before losing to 2004 French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina in four sets.