Biography. Achievements in tennis

Yevgeny Kafelnikov is recognized as the best tennis player of the 20th century in Russia. He is the owner of all possible titles in tennis: Olympic champion, Grand Slam winner, Davis Cup winner.

Kafelnikov Evgeniy Alexandrovich

Born 02/18/1974

Personal achievements:

• Olympic champion 2000 in singles.
• Winner of 2 Grand Slam singles tournaments (Roland Garros-1996; Australian Open-1999).
• Australian Open 2000 finalist in singles.
• Winner of 26 ATP singles tournaments.
• Finalist of 20 ATP tournaments in singles.
• Singles win-loss ratio in professional career: 609–306.
• Retained the title of world number one for 6 weeks.
• Winner of 4 Grand Slam tournaments in doubles(Roland Garros – 1996, 1997, 2002, US Open – 1997).
• Finalist of Roland Garros 2003 in doubles.
• Winner of 27 ATP doubles tournaments.
• Finalist of 14 ATP tournaments in doubles.
• Professional career doubles win-loss record: 358-213.

Team Achievements:

• Winner of the 2002 Davis Cup.
• Davis Cup finalist 1994, 1995.

Start

Evgeniy began playing tennis at the age of six and trained in native Sochi. Literally a year after the start of training, Kafelnikov came to the attention of the coaches of the USSR youth team, who began to closely monitor the young tennis player.

Zhenya’s first victories came in doubles. Together with Andrei Medvedev, he became a two-time European champion at his age, and in 1990 they became winners of the junior Davis Cup.

In 1991, Kafelnikov changed his coach and moved to Moscow along with Anatoly Aleksandrovich Lepeshin, who was able to find sponsors for a promising player.

Climbing

New country - new order. Since 1992, Kafelnikov has been a professional, meaning his income directly depends on his results. In just two seasons, Evgeniy went from an mediocre master to an elite player. Judge for yourself: he met the year 1993 as the 275th racket in the world, and at the time of the chiming clock on December 31, 1994, he was in full swing knocking on the TOP 10, settling in 11th position.

The first victories at ATP Tour tournaments were not long in coming. Kafelnikov also performs successfully at Grand Slam tournaments. So, in the 1995 season he reached the semi-finals of Roland Garros and was among the top eight at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

With growth sportsmanship Evgeniy, the Russian national team takes the leading position in the Davis Cup, with Kafelnikov participating in the final battles against the Swedes and Americans for two years in a row.

Champion

By 1996, Kafelnikov was finally consolidating his status as an elite tennis player. First of all, experts note the versatility of our player: he performs with equal success on all courts, demonstrating smart play on the back line, which, coupled with excellent endurance, allows Evgeniy to be considered one of the main favorites of the Tour.

Our compatriot becomes a true star of world tennis after defeating the great one in the semi-finals of Roland Garros. But these were flowers: two days later, Kafelnikov beat Michael Stich and became the first Russian tennis player to celebrate success at the Grand Slam tournament.

What is noteworthy is that Evgeniy achieved a golden double: together with Daniel Vacek, he won the doubles competition. The Russian-Czech tandem will become a Grand Slam triumphant twice more in the 1997 season: first, confirming the non-accidentality of its success on French soil and crowning the year with a victory at the US Open.

In singles, Kafelnikov showed himself especially brightly at the Australian Open, becoming its winner in the winter of 1999, defeating Thomas Enquist, and losing in the final of the first tournament of the 21st century to Andre Agassi.

Well, Kafelnikov won his main victory on October 2, 2000 in Sydney. Having broken the pressure of Tommy Haas in a five-set match, Evgeniy becomes an Olympic champion and a hero of Russia, summing up with this triumph his many years of being among the top ten strongest tennis players in the world.

Recession and the long-awaited Davis Cup

Unfortunately, success in Sydney was the last significant personal victory in Evgeniy’s career. If at the end of 2001 he even improved his position on the Tour, finishing the season in 4th place and having two quarterfinals and one semifinal at the Grand Slam tournaments, then in 2002 Kafelnikov’s results began to deteriorate sharply.

By the fall, Evgeniy’s game had completely gone wrong, and he was unable to become the winner of the home Kremlin Cup for the sixth time in a row. But the third time, Kafelnikov won the Davis Cup. And even though the formal laurels of the winners belong primarily to Mikhail Youzhny and, our hero’s contribution to the team’s success cannot be underestimated. It was Kafelnikov who was the locomotive of domestic tennis, followed by the rest.

Heritage

Despite the fact that Kafelnikov was unable to leave on a winning note, ending his career as the 41st racket in the world, his legacy is beyond doubt. While Russia was recovering from the collapse of the USSR, he became one of the main athletes new country, proving with their play that there are professionals not only in the West.

In addition to his own achievements, Evgeniy paved the way to glory for Marat Safin, showing by his example how one can be successful. This assessment of his performance is confirmed by the fact that Kafelnikov finished the season six times in the top ten tennis players in the world. Add to this two victories at the Grand Slam tournaments and the title of Olympic champion - by all measures, a grandiose career!

The best Russian tennis player of the century, winner of the Grand Slam tournament, Yevgeny Kafelnikov today is a businessman and an active Twitter user. His statements online gave rise to a couple of scandals, but this is not where to start a story about a great athlete. Russia's most decorated tennis player, nicknamed "Kalashnikov", won 26 ATP tournaments and gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Evgeniy left tennis quite quietly, which cannot be said about the years when he was in business.

Victories of Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Yevgeny Kafelnikov was born in Sochi in 1974. His father was a famous volleyball player and instilled in his son a love of sports from childhood. The boy first picked up a racket at the age of 6. They didn't have high hopes for him, which now seems quite strange. At the age of 11, Kafelnikov went to Moscow, where he honed his skills, and within three years he became the winner of the European Championship. Only after this did coaches Peschanko and Shishkin pay attention to the young tennis player. Since 1991, Evgeniy trained with Anatoly Lepeshin, who, according to the champion, turned him into a professional.

In the early 1990s, Kafelnikov was only 275th on the list, and by the middle of the decade he had risen to sixth place. Thanks to Lepeshin's support, he eventually won the long-awaited Davis Cup. The tennis player performed equally successfully in both singles and doubles. In 1995, he won Roland Garros, defeating and, and a year later he distinguished himself in a pair with Daniel Vacek at the same Open Championship in France. With him, Evgeniy became the champion at the US Open. At the end of the 1990s, the tennis player won the singles at the Australian Open, beating Thomas Enqvist. At the same time, Evgeniy received the title of first racket of the world.

The most memorable match for the athlete himself was the final 1996 World Championship:

“Eight best tennis players on the planet, final, Becker - Sampras. To this day, I consider this the most brilliant tennis match. Five sets, 7:6 in the fifth game Sampras wins. The level of tennis itself was simply sky-high.”

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Tennis symbol with the best contracts

Evgeniy has two champion titles under his belt Grand Slam, 23 – ATP tournament and gold olympic medal. Incomprehensible for a Russian athlete, success in tennis promised Kafelnikov cooperation with brands. The Italian brand signed its first Russian contract with Evgeniy. This happened back in 1995, the amount of the contract was not disclosed. According to some reports at that time, the cooperation became one of the largest in the history of tennis. The terms were compared to the contracts of Pete Sampras. The next successful agreement was working with Fischer. However, at that time, advertising still brought less income to the athlete than prize money from victories. In 1999, Evgeniy’s fortune totaled $13 million.

A real hunt has begun for Kafelnikov. Companies offered him lucrative contracts one after another. The tennis player has become a symbol of world tennis. He also worked with Lotto and was a Nike ambassador. Evgeniy is still with the American company a good relationship. But on this moment he doesn't spend as much time on advertising. The athlete invests his funds in the construction of residential buildings and office buildings in Moscow.

Personal life of Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Back in 1998, Yevgeny Kafelnikov married Maria Tishkova, and they had a daughter, Alesya. It was because of her that a scandal broke out in 2017. Kafelnikov wrote a strange message on Twitter hinting at the drug addiction of his daughter, who by that time worked as a model and actress. Readers reacted ambiguously to the news. The conflict was soon resolved, but it was never fully revealed what really happened to Alesya.

At the moment, Evgeniy is divorced from his wife, his daughter is under the guardianship of her father. The athlete is quite a media personality, so his new relationship is often discussed in the press. On social networks, Kafelnikov’s daughter has photographs of a flight attendant, whose name is also Alesya. The tennis player currently lives with her.

As for sports, Yevgeny Kafelnikov also enjoys golf and plays poker. He sometimes takes to the court in veterans' tournaments. In 2010, at a meeting at Roland Garros, Kafelnikov, paired with Michael Stich, beat him.

The main passion of the newly-minted businessman remains football and his favorite Moscow team “Spartak”. He flies to matches on a private plane. Evgeniy, as always, is silent about the amounts he spends on flights and services. In one interview, he only said that he bought his first plane because of his daughter:

“In 1998, my daughter was born, I really wanted to spend time with her. It took me the whole day to get from one tournament to another. If, God forbid, I lost somewhere: in Prague, Rotterdam, Marseille, I could call and say: “Will you fly for me?” I arrived at the hotel, packed my things and was already home in a couple of hours.”

The famous athlete Yevgeny Kafelnikov is the most titled tennis player in our country - he has won 23 ATP competitions in two types of categories, he was the first of our compatriots to win the Grand Slam games, received the status of the first racket of the world in 1999 and a year later won the Olympic singles games.

Brief biography and first steps in tennis of Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Yevgeny Kafelnikov was born in Sochi in 1974, and began playing tennis at the age of six. The mentor for the young athlete was Valery Shishkin, who coached Kafelnikov for twelve years. When Evgeniy was only seven years old, he was already included in the reserve team of the USSR national team.

He achieved his first victories together with the future legend Ukrainian tennis– Andrey Medvedev, with whom they twice managed to become winners of the European Junior Championships in doubles. His performances as part of the USSR team in 1989 and 1990 brought him championship at the World Cup.

Professional tennis career

Kafelnikov was almost twenty years old when he won his first victory at professional level- in 1994, in the final match in Adelaide, he beat Russian Alexander Volkov in two sets. In the same year, the athlete wins the ATP tournament in Barcelona, ​​Spain, in doubles.

Straightaway double triumph at the Grand Slam game at Roland Garros - victory in doubles and singles went to Kafelnikov in 1996. The following year he won the doubles championship at Roland Garros and the US Open. The Australian Open final brought the athlete another victory in single player in 1999.

End of an athlete's career

After winning the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and at the Davis Cup in the team victory of our country in 2002, Kafelnikov’s career began to decline. Evgeniy made his last appearance on the international court in 2003. Yevgeny Kafelnikov has shown himself to be a universal player in nine years of tennis upper class. He was equally good at both singles and doubles - 23 ATP titles in both categories are further proof of this. Evgeniy also easily conquered all types of court surfaces - all his victories were won on playgrounds with completely different coverage.

After completing a large stage of his life dedicated to tennis, Yevgeny Kafelnikov began to get involved in poker and golf. Today, golfer Kafelnikov already has a national champion title 2011, honorary member of the Russian Golf Association, 1st vice-president of this organization and vice-president Tennis Federation Russia.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov is a Russian athlete, a star of the tennis court, the first Russian to climb to the first place of the podium at the Roland Garros 1996 tournament, and three years later he already held the title of first racket of the world. Olympic champion (Sydney, 2000), Davis Cup winner (2002), Russian golf champion (2011).

Russian tennis player, who is called the most titled in the history of the country, was born in the south, in the Krasnodar Territory. Yevgeny Kafelnikov spent his childhood and teenage years in Sochi.

The first to notice his son’s excellent athletic abilities was his father, a volleyball player. At the age of 5, Evgeniy picked up tennis racket and soon demonstrated an amazing “feel for the ball.” This was confirmed by the boy’s first coaches Valery Peschanko and Valery Shishkin. At the age of 6 he already participated in tournaments. At 7 Kafelnikov was included in the group Olympic reserve Soviet national tennis team.

The speed of reaction and skill demonstrated by Yevgeny Kafelnikov was amazing. The young athlete learned the secrets of the game extremely quickly. At the age of 11, Zhenya was already demonstrating his own intellectual style.

Tennis

The prospects of 13-year-old Kafelnikov were highly assessed, but coach Valery Shishkin did not want to force events and “held back” the athlete for a breakthrough. And so it happened: in 1990, Evgeniy won the Youth World Cup.

IN next year the young athlete trained at the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida. After this, Yevgeny Kafelnikov returned to the country and finally moved to the capital. The young athlete was accepted into the VFSO Dynamo. Kafelnikov's coach at long years became the leading master of Russia Anatoly Lepeshin. According to Evgeniy, it was this mentor who made a real athlete out of the young man. To promote his mentee, the coach found sponsors, since the young athlete’s family could not afford to finance their son’s education and travel to tournaments.

Lepeshin went to all competitions with Evgeniy, teaching him strict discipline. Higher education the young man received his training at the Kuban Academy of Physical Education.

Sports biography Evgenia Kafelnikova is like a rapidly taking off rocket. From the initial 423rd place in the world rankings, which he occupied in 1991, Kafelnikov managed to reach the first hundred of the best tennis players in the world. And a year later, the Russian approached the top ten leaders on the tennis court. Evgeniy was accepted into the elite of world tennis.

Since 1995, Yevgeny Kafelnikov has consistently been among the top ten strongest tennis players in the world. The Russian's rivals were Pete Sampras, Patrick Rafter, Michael Stich, Thomas Muster and others. Kafelnikov won and reached the finals and quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup, Grand Slam and Davis Cup tournaments.

But Yevgeny Kafelnikov’s main victory happened in 1996. The Russian tennis player was the first among his compatriots to win the Roland Garros tournament in singles.

In 1998, the athlete set himself an ambitious goal: to achieve leadership positions in the world rankings. To do this, the tennis player changed his coach. Lepeshin's place was taken by American Larry Stefanki.

Kafelnikov achieved his goal and soon won the 2nd Grand Slam tournament, and in the spring of 1999 Evgeniy was named the first racket of the world. But the XXVII Summer Olympics in Sydney brought real triumph to the tennis player. Yevgeny Kafelnikov became the champion, managing to beat German tennis player Tommy Haas in the final. State Russian star Tennis was valued at $15 million in 2001.

In 2002, another significant victory: the Russian was in the lead at the most prestigious tournament in the history of world tennis - the Davis Cup. Since then, the tennis player has been considered a true legend of the sport. Kafelnikov is famous for his unique attacking style of play, for which he received the nickname “Kalashnikov”.

Having reached an unprecedented height, the athlete quietly left the “front line”. Evgeniy did not announce this and did not organize any “farewell” competitions. Kafelnikov simply stopped participating in tournaments. But, having managed to reach the top, he could not leave the sport. Evgeniy switched to golf, in which he also managed to achieve victories. Since 2005, the athlete has been participating in competitions top level. In 2011, he was the leader in the Russian championship, literally snatching victory in the last minutes of the round.

In the late 2000s, Evgeni temporarily resumed his tennis career. Kafelnikov became a participant in veteran tennis tournaments. Tennis fans could watch friendly match between Russian athlete and Thomas Muster, who shone at the Grand Slam tournaments in the mid-90s. The meeting of two sports legends took place at Roland Garros 2009.

A year later, Kafelnikov re-entered the court against Andrei Medvedev, Goran Ivanisevic and Michael Stich. In the same year, Evgeniy for the first time sports career reached the final competition at Wimbledon, paired with Wayne Ferreira.

In 2010-2011, Kafelnikov became one of the participants in the “Legends of Tennis in Moscow” tournament along with Jim Courier, Andrei Cherkasov and.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov also pilots planes and plays poker brilliantly. The athlete participated in the tournament competitions World Series of Poker-2005. The legendary athlete does not forget about charity. In 2001, Evgeniy won the Kremlin Cup and donated the entire winnings of $100 thousand to the relatives of those killed in a plane crash over the Black Sea. In his hometown, Kafelnikov finances a section for young tennis players. Evgeny also became a sponsor of the local clinical hospital by purchasing expensive equipment.

Personal life

The tennis player’s enormous busyness did not allow him to be distracted by everything that did not relate to sports. But at the age of 23, Yevgeny Kafelnikov’s personal life changed. The athlete met the beautiful model Maria Tishkova. Masha traveled with Evgeniy for a long time to different cities and countries, where her husband participated in tournaments and Olympiads.

In 1998, the news of Masha’s pregnancy “hurried” the couple into marriage. That same year, a daughter was born. For Maria, the girl turned out to be the second child, because the model already had a daughter, Diana, born in her first marriage to singer Christian Ray.

After the birth of her second daughter, Maria had no time left to travel for her husband. The wife and daughters were waiting for her husband at home. Among other things, Masha became interested in a religious movement, of which her father also became a prominent adherent. The woman donated considerable sums to the needs of the Canadian sect, which her husband did not want to put up with. The relationship went wrong and led to divorce.

The couple's separation, which occurred three years after the wedding, turned out to be painful and scandalous. Kafelnikov sued his daughter Alesya from his wife. Evgeniy tried to arrange his personal life, but soon reunited with his wife. Together with Maria, Evgeniy managed to appear at social events. Later, Maria again disappeared from the former tennis player’s inner circle.

Now the daughter of tennis player Alesya Kafelnikova lives with her father and is making progress in her modeling career. As a child, Alesya lived in Sochi with Evgeniy’s parents, where she spent time tennis court, at a riding school, then studied in Moscow and abroad. At the age of 15 she began her modeling career. The girl decided to get her higher education in Russia and entered two universities: the Financial Academy and the Ostankino Television School. On the silver screen, Alesya made her debut in the talk show “Let Them Talk” with.

For some time there was a misunderstanding between the father and Alesya, which provoked the father into “