Contemporary tennis greats don’t come as sturdy and versatile as 2019 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Yevgeny Kafelnikov. From 1992 to 2003, Kafelnikov was relentless, thoroughly engaged by competition. All told, this man from Russia would earn nearly 1,000 match wins in singles and doubles – rare double-duty in recent tennis history.
One defining Kafelnikov moment came at Roland-Garros in 1996, when he won both the singles and men’s doubles titles. There’d been a time when this often happened. Such players as Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Roy Emerson and John McEnroe were among those who claimed both championships at a single major. But as the Open era wore on, top players hardly made time to compete in doubles.
Kafelnikov saw it differently. Less disposed to practice than to compete, Kafelnikov savored the way doubles refined many aspects of his game, most notably his volleys and returns. No man since has matched Kafelnikov’s feat of taking both titles at a single major.
But as much as Kafelnikov relished earning victories under his name, he grew even more inspired when his homeland was involved.
Sports and Russia were intertwined for Kafelnikov from birth. His father, Aleksandre, was a volleyball coach. His mother, Valentina, was a basketball player. But young Yevgeny found another athletic calling. Team sports, he noted years later, require reliance on others. “But in tennis,” said Kafelnikov, “you’re the one against your opponent. And I felt like, if I would be strong enough mentally and physically, then the outcome would be the one that I expected.”
As he came of age, Kafelnikov was aware of many prior excellent Russian players. Through the ‘50s and into the ‘70s, there had been Anna Dmitrieva, Alex Metreveli, and Olga Morozova. Closer to Yevgeny’s time, there were such superb men as Andrei Cherkasov and Alexander Volkov. Inspired by those near-contemporaries, Kafelnikov felt that “perhaps I could do the same one day.”
With ball, racquets, strings, and shoes at a premium in the Soviet Union of Kafelnikov’s childhood, nothing was taken for granted. Amid such austere conditions, Kafelnikov developed a strong work ethic. In 1991, the year he turned 17, Kafelnikov was given the chance to come to the U.S. and practice at the famed IMG Bollettieri Tennis Academy, a trip that included a practice session with a man Kafelnikov would play frequently, Pete Sampras.
Three years later, in only the second major of his career, the 19-year-old Kafelnikov would nearly beat Sampras, losing 9-7 in the fifth set of a second round match at the ’94 Australian Open. Over the course of an incredible debut year, Kafelnikov’s ranking soared from 104 to 11. By the end of 1995, he’d won seven singles titles, reached the quarters or better at three majors, established himself as a top-10 mainstay and led Russia to two consecutive Davis Cup finals.
So it came as no surprise to see Kafelnikov grab the 1996 French Open by the throat. All told, between singles and doubles, he won 13 matches and 33 of 34 sets. As always, there was a major connection here to his homeland: Kafelnikov had become the first Russian to ever win a major singles title. “Being the first, I think it was like the equivalent of flying to the moon,” Kafelnikov said jokingly – sort of.
Just over two years after that incredible run through Paris, Kafelnikov earned another major at the 1999 Australian Open. Unlike the Roland-Garros victory, in this instance, Kafelnikov labored, four of his matches going at least four sets, including a fourth set tiebreaker win over Thomas Enqvist in the finals. But in the oven-like heat of Melbourne, Kafelnikov’s fitness proved decisive. “In the back of my mind,” he said, “I felt like, I don’t want to be known for someone who only won one Slam.” Later that spring, another milestone came when Kafelnikov reached the number one spot on the ATP rankings – an achievement that elicited a congratulatory letter from one of his homeland’s biggest tennis fans, President Boris Yeltsin.
And yet again and again, nothing stirred Kafelnikov more than when Russia was involved. In the fall of 2000, in Sydney, Kafelnikov arrived at the Olympic Games for the first time. “You’re playing for your country and you’re there with the other athletes from different parts of the world, different sports,” said Kafelnikov. “It’s indescribable.”
But one word summarized his tennis: sublime. “From the third round on,” he said, “I played every match like it was the last match of my career.” Arriving in the finals without the loss of a set, Kafelnikov then took more than three-and-a-half hours to subdue Tommy Haas, 6-3 in the fifth.
Native pride also surfaced when Kafelnikov played Davis Cup. From 1993 to 2003, he was a stalwart of the Russian team. He competed in 68 matches and was a vital member of the 2002 championship squad. In 2016, he was given the Davis Cup Commitment Award, given to players who have shown longstanding dedication to representing their country.
Then, fittingly, there was Kafelnikov’s performance in his nation’s capital. Moscow was the setting for the Kremlin Cup. At the age of 16, Kafelnikov was given a wild card into the qualifying. His gratitude for that opportunity would play out as his career kicked into high gear. Starting in 1997, Kafelnikov took this title five straight years. Not only did he win matches; he also won hearts. Upon his fifth Kremlin Cup victory in 2001, Kafelnikov opted to donate his entire winner’s check of $137,000 to victims of a plane crash that killed 78 people near his hometown of Sochi. “It cannot compensate for the lives of those who died, but I make this compensation from the bottom of my heart,” Kafelnikov said that day.
Powerful groundstrokes, sharp volleys and smooth movement took Kafelnikov as far as a tennis player can go – right to the top. For all the planes he’d boarded, for all the hotels he’d checked in to, for all the restaurants practice courts and matches and press conferences he’d been part of in every corner of the globe, this man’s heart always remained firmly anchored where he’d started. “I am living in my country,” Kafelnikov said earlier this year. “I love the people. I know that they need my experience: life experience, experience what I have gained traveling around the world, experience what I have gained playing the game of tennis.”
