KZBlog

Tennis World has an article up about Kazakhstan’s buying of Russian tennis players. This is nothing new; I covered the purchase of Sesil Karatantcheva, a Bulgarian which has been going pretty well for the nation. And our recent medalist at Vancouver was also brought to Kazakhstan from Russia.

Tennis World’s interview with Evgeny Korolev is interesting because it dives a bit into why players come to Kazakhstan.

Korolev says, “[Kazakhstan is] most of all taking care of the players. They call you, make sure everything is OK. They give you everything — everything that Russia doesn’t want to do anymore.” That sounds like he gets a good chunk of change and some pandering; One imagines calls from the Minister of Tourism and Sport: ‘Did that gift basket come? And the Egyptian cotton robe? Do you want to go to the wildlife preserve tomorrow in my private Range Rover? See some flamingos? Or how about a champagne brunch?’

Beyond the material, Korolev seems to like being top dog, even if it’s in a smaller pond. It must be tiring being number 163 behind world famous stars like Sharapova, Kuzentsova, Davydenko, Youzhny and Safin. Tennis World says:

Not long ago, before he took the money, Korolev was “Baby Marat,” because his musuclar build and strong, aggressive game resembled a smaller edition of Russian star Marat Safin. “I hated that name,” he said. “Now,” he added with amusing pride, “they call me the Prince of Kazakhstan.”

They also have a useful list of all the players Kazakhstan has recruited:

* [Evgeny] Korolev: Born in Moscow, 22 years old. Homes in Moscow, Germany and Miami. ATP rank is No. 46.
* Andrey Golubev: Born in Volzhski, Russia, 22 years old. Lives in Bra, Italy. ATP rank is No. 95.
* Mikhail Kukushkin: Born in Volgograd, Russia, 22 years old. Lives in Astana, Kazakhstan. ATP rank is No. 120. Well, there’s one who at least pretends to be Kazakhstani. [Seriously, can’t they talk one of them into actually moving here?-KZBlog]
* Yaroslava Shvedova: Born in Moscow, 22 years old. Lives in Moscow. WTA rank is No. 43.
* Golina Voskoboeva: Born in Moscow, 25 years old. Lives in Moscow. WTA rank is No. 134.
* Sesil Karatancheva: Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, 20 years old. Lives in Sofia, WTA rank is No. 139.

The article also dances around how much money Korolev gets. The author seems to be convinced he gets $1 million though Evgeny isn’t talking. I hear from my sources that the government has budgeted up to $1 million to recruit athletes and also $250 000 for them to buy an apartment–I guess they must all need property here. Change of citizenship is of course, a must–ATP/WTA/Olympics rules, I’m sure.

I certainly hope that some money is being put away to train our native athletes as well.