Russian Anna Chakvetadze would like to try something new aside from her tennis career and is one of the three parliamentary candidates of the Right Cause Party, a pro-business party which has the support of about 2% of population.
Women’s rights and children’s sports are areas Chakvetadze would focus on. Here’s what the 24-year old said about her political engagement:
I joined the Right Cause party because it’s a young party. All of its members are young people, who have many fresh ideas. I believe I also can bring some fresh ideas into this project. I’d like to be involved in deciding the questions concerning the sports sphere in case we manage to enter the State Duma. I am especially interested in children’s sports. I believe the state should support the children’s sports activity, making it completely free of charge.
In 2007 the fifth-ranked player in the world, Chakvetadze is now number 157, having not played because of health problems since losing in the first round of Wimbledon to Maria Sharapova. In March, April and May she had also skipped tournaments because of illness.
Recently I read some rumors that Chakvetadze might retire. No mention of that now, but if she gets really absorbed in politics it will be hard to balance it with tennis career, and fellow Russian Maria Sharapova stated she was “not really sure” whether Chakvetadze was still going to play or commit herself to politics. (source: Fox Sports, photo: Ralf Reinecke)
I saw Anna play in her next to last tournament which was in the Netherlands in June. She looked so bad and talked about an inner ear problem she was having. She needs to do everything possible to get well and put her health above all else. If she recovers healthwise she could resume playing tennis so it is understandable why she won’t announce her retirement. She has always been one of my favorite players.