For the Love of Tennis!

A tennis zealot like myself could be faulted for drawing parallels between the “real” world and the one of lobs and aces. Still, there is something to be said for what Russia’s recent Kremlin Cup tennis tournament tells us about Russia today. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the former US Davis Cup competitor and current Kremlin Cup Director Eugene Scott, “The tournament is a perfect reflection of all that is going on in Russia.”

First, there is the political/diplomatic dimension, reflected in the status of Russia’s top player, Yevgeny Kafelnikov. His ranking among the world’s top ten players is, to many, akin to Russia’s long-awaited acceptance into the G-7. Even last month’s loss to Italy, blocking Russia from the World Cup Soccer Finals in France (for the first time since 1978) has been overshadowed by concern over tennis defeats. As Obschaya Gazeta weekly newspaper justly wrote, “if Kafel (Kafelnikov’s nickname, literally “tile”) drops off the top ten, both the Russian political and cultural elite may lose all interest in the course of reforms.”

For now, I can reassure foreign investors: Kafel, the enfant terrible of Russian tennis, won this November’s Kremlin Cup (after several years of trying) to regain his top ten ranking. The win was greeted by the applause of thousands of admiring tennis fans, including Kafel’s former nemesis — the Russian press. The press has had an ongoing love-hate relationship with Kafelnikov, who dislikes obnoxious domestic journalists for their unwanted advice on his career, their hyping of his private life and their over-attentiveness to his earnings.

This brings us to the social dimension of the Kremlin Cup. That Russia’s is pinning its hopes on a 23-year old multimillionaire, while advising him on his tennis and thoroughly counting his prize money, should come as no surprise. Any nation needs idols. And giving soviety (advice) and counting the neighbors’ income has long been the favorite social sport of the former countries of the Soviety.

But Russians are now counting their own money more carefully too. And when they don’t get value for it, they are no longer hesitant to demand it back. This is exactly what happened in the women’s doubles finals of the Kremlin Cup. Arantxa Sanchez-Viccario and Natasha Zvereva received a sudden judgment victory when their opponents were suspended for unsportsmanlike conduct. It seems that Dutch player Caroline Wim cursed the chair umpire with, as sources close to the Kremlin Cup indicated, “the F word.”

The Dutch team left the court to the taunting whistles of Russian tennis fans, who then turned their anger on the organizers, demanding a ticket refund because of such an abrupt ending to the long-awaited performance. This is an important sign of Russians’ new boldness, after living too long with the idea that the customer is always wrong.

But the most amazing thing was yet to come. The Cup organizers offered a face-saving solution: two young Russians were selected from the audience at random to play against Zvereva and Sanchez-Viccario. Public discontent turned to acceptance. The two young men chosen not only proved relaxed enough to perform in front of a packed Olympic stadium, but also showed good tennis and public relations skills, with a show-stealing performance.

Eugene Scott was correct in his observation that “this sense of whimsy was not present here eight years ago. Though, it has always been in the Russian character to have a little sense of whimsy. But it had to be done at home, they were not allowed to do this in public ... Now they are given a stage for it.”

Unfortunately, the names of these two bold young men are shrouded in mystery — journalists were only smart enough to take their photos. Which would not have been the case some 10 years ago, when “competent bodies” would have identified the “volunteers” in a matter of hours, along with all their relatives ... Then the young men could forget about respectable job offers, travel abroad and other perks closed to ideologically shaky “cosmopolitans.” And the thought of what would have happened to these guys fifty years ago sends tremors down your spine. Such a “chair umpire” as Joseph Stalin would not have let slide such a “double fault.” But then again, such speculation is ridiculous, for a tennis tournament like the Kremlin Cup in Stalin’s Moscow belongs only to the realm of science fiction ...

Yet, today the most unimaginable no longer seems fantastic. And the history of the Kremlin Cup is a good case in point. Next year, when the tournament will last three weeks, organizers said they plan to invite the popular US group, The Hanson Brothers — the same youngsters who sang at the opening of the new US Open stadium — to the opening ceremony. This may well add another $100,000 to the organizational costs, but nothing is too good to fan Russia’s new sports fever. Today, in many respects, thanks to the Kremlin Cup, tennis is in the spotlight here. Some might even argue it will somehow help Russia to retrieve its once-lost national idea. Not that this is any consolation to Russia’s soccer fans...