THE Russian revolution at Wimbledon was quelled in 162 minutes yesterday. One by one, the Muscovite heiresses to Anna Kournikova’s column inches were blasted away by superior American firepower.

Anastasia Myskina, Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva managed just 13 games between them against their fourth-round opponents from the United States. Clearly, no one has told the Williams sisters and Jennifer Capriati that the Cold War is over.

“We Americans are doing pretty good now,” Serena Williams said after her 6-2, 6-2 demolition of Dementieva, the No 15 seed, completed in 50 minutes. Venus was equally abrupt after her 6-1, 6-3 win over Zvonareva, who had knocked her out of the French Open. What did it mean to her to exorcise the ghosts of Paris? “What it means is I’m in the quarter-finals,” she said.

That the Mother Country has anyone in the women’s quarter-finals at all is down to the fact that the other two Russians in the draw were playing each other.

The one without the hype went through. Maria Sharapova, the 16-year-old dubbed the “new Kournikova”, inappropriately as she seems capable of winning a title, lost the form that she showed against Jelena Dokic and bowed out 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 to Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 17-year-old from St Petersburg, coached in Barcelona by Emilio Sánchez, now plays Justine Henin-Hardenne, the French Open champion.

At the start of the day, the Russian uprising seemed to have considerable momentum. Of the last 16 women, a remarkable five were from the former Soviet Union.

There are now three Russian women in the world’s top 20 as a clutch of talented players follow the path set by Kournikova, who at her peak three years ago was ranked eighth and has amassed a fortune through commercial endorsements.

Virginia Wade, the last British singles winner of Wimbledon, puts the Russian success down to raw hunger. Tennis is a meal ticket that most Englanders can do without. Last year, Russians took two of the four junior grand-slam titles.

The Kournikova effect may be overplayed. Evgeni Fediakov, a writer for the Sport- Express daily newspaper in Moscow, said: “In Russia it is a sport you play for your country. Kournikova, yes, she was a symbol. She was popular and famous but other players did not like her very much.”

Russians prefer to credit Shamil Tarpishchev, head of the All-Russia Tennis Association and one time coach to President Yeltsin. Tennis is the new ice hockey in Russia. Once a bourgeois sport shunned by the Communist party, its success is embraced in the corridors of the Kremlin. Yeltsin did more than anyone to popularise the sport. It was taken up by politicians and businessmen, resulting in a knock-on investment in the club structure that is now reaping rewards.