Thursday, August 09, 2001
Kafelnikov speaks mind on game's future
Question is: Is anyone taking him seriously?
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
(Ernest Coleman photo)
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MASON — Yevgeny Kafelnikov is tennis' new philosopher king. Now if he only can get his peers to take him seriously.
The reclusive Russian raised eyebrows two weeks ago when he said tennis needed more exciting personalities. This coming from the sport's invisible iron man, who leads the ATP Tour in matches played for the seventh year in the last eight yet remains enigmatic and emotionless.
“That's pretty funny,” Patrick Rafter said when hearing Kafelnikov's comment. “I don't know if he's trying to be humorous or what, because it sounds very funny to me.”
Then, dripping with sarcasm: “I don't know what we'll do when we lose Yevgeny.”
Or when they will. Kafelnikov, 27, has been on the ATP Tour for nine years and won more than $19 million, the seventh-highest total in the sport's history. At Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati, where he beat Fabrice Santoro 6-1, 6-4 Wednesday, he has dropped hints of retirement for years.
In 1998 here, he said, “It's hard to carry on. It's one of those times in my career where I don't give a (expletive) about anything.” In 1999, he said, “There's not many good years left in me to play.”
He is different this year; that's certain. He no longer complains about the lonely lifestyle of the tour or his rigorous match schedule.
He now talks about promoting the sport and says his peers “just got me wrong” in reading his comments from last month.
“Tennis is having a hard period of time now,” Kafelnikov said. “We need some attention in the game ... like with the players we used to have — for example, when Becker (and) Edberg played. There (is) not enough media attention perhaps, or players are not doing enough promotion of the game.
“I look on certain things in life different now. I've done so many wrong things when I was a young age. I'd love to help to make the game better.”
Kafelnikov has finished in the top 11 of the rankings every year since 1993 and briefly held the No.1 ranking in 1999. His lone remaining obsession is winning a Davis Cup crown; Russia has twice finished second.
The key could be helping 21-year-old countryman Marat Safin return to form. Ka felnikov has tried to counsel Safin, who reached the No.2 ranking late last year, but is just 21-20 this year.
“When success comes at a young age, sometimes you don't realize what's beyond that,” Kafelnikov said. “Unfortunately, there was not many guys around that could have told him (last year). It's hard for any young person to see who your friends are when I'm basically saying, "Look, you're doing this wrong,' and the other guys are saying, "You're the god; you're better than anybody.'”
Kafelnikov's ranking is down to sixth. He's having a so-so year, with a 41-19 mark and just one title.
Yet he marches on, the sport's outspoken soldier.
“When I realize that I'm not capable of winning the tournaments anymore, it will be the right time to stop,” he said. “But right now, I still believe in myself. I still have the capability of winning.”
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Kafelnikov speaks mind on game's future