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The invisible man Out of spotlight, Kafelnikov quietly rolling along
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The good news for double Grand Slam champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov is that he is not the centre of attention at the U.S. Open. "You guys [the media] didn't talk about me the first 10 days," said Kafelnikov, who moved into the quarterfinals with a surprisingly easy 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 over Australian Open finalist Arnaud Clement. "That seems to me an ideal situation for me. Just keep not writing any articles so I can wake one day, the remaining days, without looking in the paper and seeing myself in the pictures." The 27-year-old Kafelnikov, who struggled to the fourth round by playing two five-set matches followed by a four-setter in the third round, is also taking a different approach to his tennis these days. Ending his coaching relationship with Larry Stefanki in May at the Rome Masters -- the partnership had immediate success when Kafelnikov won the 1999 Australian Open -- the Russian is going it alone. "I prefer to be solo," said Kafelnikov, who won his first Grand Slam trophy at the 1996 French Open. "I learned throughout the years so much. I don't think anybody can help me these days, but myself. "For all the successes, all the desires I will have for me, my career, I can blame only myself, not any other person." Acknowledging that beating Clement in straight sets provides "a confidence boost" -- his last straight set win at the U.S. Open was in the fourth round of the 1999 tournament -- Kafelnikov is having more fun playing tennis these days. But fun does not supersede the primary goal of being successful. "Right now I think I'm probably enjoying [tennis] as much as I did in the early stage of my career," Kafelnikov said. "Every match that I win brings me joy, no question about it. Still my goal remains to win as many matches in my career as I can, to win as many tournaments." Another adventure Kafelnikov enjoyed this tournament is being invited into the television commentary booth as a guest announcer with John McEnroe. He is hoping McEnroe extends another invitation to join him on TV for the upcoming quarterfinal battle between second seed Andre Agassi and 10th seed Pete Sampras. "It's really sad those guys are playing in a quarterfinal," Kafelnikov said. "It easily could be the final like they played two other times with each other. But that's the way it goes. "Unfortunately, Pete has dropped in the ranking. You know, he has to come out tomorrow and prove himself, that he still belongs to the best in the world." Although Kafelnikov insists he is just taking it one match at a time at this year's Open, he did suggest that the perfect conclusion to the U.S. Open would be an all-Russian final between himself and defending champion Marat Safin. "It would be, you know, the ideal story," Kafelnikov said. "It would be great history that me and Marat will be in the final."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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