Vladimir Putin Is Concerned About The Status Of Russian Men’s Tennis

Written by: Staff on 15th April 2013

Vladimir Putin Is Concerned About The Status Of Russian Men’s Tennis |

It appears that even Russian president Vladimir Putin is concerned by the sad shape of men’s tennis in the nation – at least that’s the impression given by disappointed national tennis chief Shamil Tarpishchev.

“I met with Vladimir. He gave the order to make a tennis development program, and now we’re going to carry it out,” said the always-mysterious Tarpishchev.

The head of the Davis and Fed Cup teams and a man with a finger in almost every pie concerning the spot in his country is still smarting after his side was defeated 3-2 by Britain a week ago and knocked down a notch in Davis Cup zonal play.

With the Brits celebrating a major win achieved without Andy Murray, the Russians are already considering their next move to regain tennis respectability.

The current Russian situation is a far cry from just over a decade ago when Nikolay Davydenko and Marat Safin played consistently top tennis and had the rankings to prove it. And a decade before that, Yevgeny Kafelnikov stood world No. 1. The best of the current bunch is No. 26 Mikhail Youzhny.

“I’ve been talking about this for a decade, but who’s listening,” Tarpishchev said told Russian media. “It’s a shame that on the wave of the first decade (the 1990s) it would have been possible to create a miracle, but now just to return to that previous position we need to waste another decade, and only if everything goes well.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Marat Safin, Mikhail Youzhny, Nikolay Davydenko, Russian tennis news., Shamil Tarpishchev, Vladimir Putin