Mr Sharapova and Soviet historian NM Karamzin

[mart13.livejournal.com]

IN THE TIMES Maria Sharapova's father is once called Mr Sharapova. It's a very rude mistake because in Russian his name is Sharapov. We add "a" at the end in women's names. It's offensive to call a man Sharapova.
Nabokov said that in English we should call Анна Каренина "Anna Karenin" as "she is not a balerina". If Nabokov lived today, he would probably add: "and not a tennis player".
In the same issue of The Times I saw a funny misprint: "Sharpova" (they tried to make her name more English and turned a strange "sharap" into a well-known root "sharp").
A few weeks ago I found in The Times a quotation from a "Soviet historian N M Karamzin". Karamzin, a monarchist, died 90 years before the Revolution and can never be called a Soviet historian.