“The 90s were hard, but interesting. And now there’s some kind of stupor.” Interview Kafelnikov – about the spirit of the times

Yevgeny Kafelnikov is one of the main athletes of Russia in the 90s, in which tennis was the presidential sport. And in tennis, Kafelnikov is the first Russian giant.

He was the first to take the Grand Slam and led the ATP rankings, won the first tennis gold of the Olympics and gave a lot to the team that took the first Davis Cup.

But Kafelnikov is not only tennis. In many ways, he was the embodiment of the ideals of capitalism that came to Russia in the 90s. He achieved everything himself, due to his talent and hard work, he turned from an ordinary Sochi youth into a millionaire with a private jet.

Now the plane has been sold, Russia has changed, and Kafelnikov is more often remembered for controversial tweets than for victories.

We met with Yevgeny for the series “100 Best Athletes in the History of Russia” ( selected by the editors and users , end of voting – March 31 at 23:59 Moscow time) and talked about his great career.

Now Kafelnikov works in the Tennis Federation – he is looking for talents

What are you doing now, how busy are you?

– Very busy. As you know, I am the Vice President of the Russian Tennis Federation, responsible for youth tennis. Basically, this is the age from 12 to 14-15 years.

I look at who plays how, I try to find talented juniors who can potentially play at a fairly high level sooner or later.

– Do you have to travel a lot?

– Well, no, basically everything is in Moscow. There are a lot of different children’s competitions here – every weekend. Naturally, I don’t go to everything, but I watch tournaments of the highest category.