Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Yevgeny Kafelnikov

Nobody from Russia had won a men's major until the 1996 French Open, where Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Michael Stich 7-6, 7-5, 7-6, then lifted the doubles trophy with Daniel Vacek in the same fortnight. No man has swept both titles at one slam since. The second of his 2 majors came at the 1999 Australian Open, Thomas Enqvist beaten in four sets, and that May he became the first Russian at world No. 1, six weeks in all. In the Melbourne final of 2000, he lost to Andre Agassi in four.

The rest was volume. Kafelnikov entered everything, singles and doubles alike, a poker-faced workhorse who piled up 27 career titles. The prize that stood apart came at Sydney 2000: Olympic singles gold, Tommy Haas outlasted 6-3 in the fifth set of the final. He helped Russia to its first Davis Cup title in 2002, then stopped a year later, aged twenty-nine, after a loss to Mikhail Youzhny at home in St Petersburg. The Hall of Fame called in 2019.