By Sandra Harwitt

Most young tennis players with an eye towards the pros can’t rush through school fast enough. In fact, a great many of them leave school early, without even a high school diploma, which is probably not the best course of action. There’s something to be said for at least a minimum requirement of education.

Vera Zvonareva is not one of those players. She likes to study. She wants to be educated. And she’s managed to lob and learn at the same time.

Zvonareva, 26, earned a first degree from the Russian State Academy of Physical Education. She’s now up to writing her thesis for a second degree in International Economic Relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow.

The Russian actually views schoolwork as the ideal way of spending time away from the grind of tennis.
“For me, it’s very important because I always loved to learn different things,” Zvonareva said. “Studying is one of the ways that takes my head off the tennis court and lets me focus on something else…. For me, it is very interesting and I’m excited about it, because I think it’s very important to develop yourself, not only as a player, but develop yourself as a person as well.”

Zvonareva’s thesis is on how Russian athletes and Russian sports could be used to “bring Russian products on the international markets.” Yes, she was talking more than vodka and caviar. She knows that Russia will be judged on the world stage in the near future when it hosts the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.

“Hopefully, it will help people to learn about Russia a little bit more,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll be open and we will see more people come into Russia as tourists.”

Zvonareva can tell them a thing or two about being judged on the world stage because that’s a part of her everyday life. She upped her ante on attention last year when she journeyed to the Wimbledon and US Open finals, losing in straight sets to Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters, respectively.

“I learned a lot of things along the way,” she said. “I wouldn’t just say it is something that I really learned just from the finals. Definitely was a great experience to be out there and to play in front of such a great crowd at Wimbledon and US Open, but I think I learned a lot of things just playing a lot of matches in two weeks.
“I learned a lot about myself. I learned how to prepare myself the best I can in order to get to the last stages of a tournament in the best shape possible.”

She used that experience to usher herself into the Sony Ericsson semifinals with a 7-5, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Agnieszka Radwanska in Miami. She’ll face defending champion Clijsters or No. 8 seed Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals.

Magnanimously Mardy: When Mardy Fish wakes up this coming Monday he will do so with a brand new distinction: He’ll have achieved a career-high world ranking of at least No. 11 and will become the top-ranked American tennis player in the men’s game.

Hope became a reality on Wednesday when Fish beat David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2 to reach the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open. Interestingly, Fish has been in four ATP Masters Series quarterfinals and has always won the match. In fact, in his previous three quarterfinal appearances at a Masters Series event he’s always gone on to make the final. This time around he will have either Novak Djokovic, the guy who has yet to lose a match this season, or Kevin Anderson to contend with in the semifinal.

“You know, I’ve never been in this position before,” Fish said. “Obviously it’s very humbling. This is a pretty big country, a lot of people playing tennis. So I’ll try to put it into perspective, and I will. Career-high No. 11 sounds really good, too. You know, these are the rewards that come with working as hard as I did.”