Wimbledon, Day 9: The Kazakhs, ahem, Russians Return Stronger than ever

President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation Bulat Utemuratov and his star player Elena Rybakina following her 2022 Wimbledon championship victory.

It’s a practice known as “stacking,” and in the case of Kazakhstan, it means to have a roster full or better than average players recruited from other nationalities (Russian) and to support them instead of their own countrymen. And Kazakhstan’s tennis association has become the master of stacking.

This year, the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation had two female players, Yulia Putintseva and Elena Rybakina, as well as two male players, Alexander Shevchenko and Alexander Bublik, all of whom are from Russia and three of whom made it past the second round of Wimbledon. The “Kazakhs” are not only invading SW19, they are gaining strength. Two years ago, only Rybakina made a grand showing — and she is still in it (to win it?)

Alexander Bublik, seen here in his Kazakhs national colors, is known for his occasional volatile behaviour on court, regularly smashing racquets. He played nice at the 2024 Wimbledon, however.

But things at the AELTC Championships changed drastically over the weekend and on Monday. For the Americans, Taylor Fritz shredded No.4 seed Alexander Zverev’s dreams of a first Wimbledon quarter-final with big-serve to beat the German in a five-set Centre Court edge-of-the-seater, and Tommy Paul (who beat Bublik) took favorite Carlos Alcaraz to four before succumbing. On the women’s side, Coco Gauff lost a nail biter to her countryman, Emma Navarro — a shocking development that ruined many fans’ fantasy tennis brackets — who turned around and gave up the ghost to everyone’s new darling, Italian Jasmine Paolini. The women’s final could likely be an Eastern European/post-Soviet showdown, while Novak Djokovic and Alcaraz could repeat 2023.

The 2006 Davis Cup Final with Dmitry Tursunov and Marat Safin cheered by former Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

Under its first patron, Arthur Davidovich McPherson (1870–1919), the heir to a family of Glaswegian ship-builders born, the Russian TennisFederation (Федерация тенниса России) thrived. By 1903, St. Petersburg had its first tennis championship and ten years later, the Russian championship was on the international tour. During the Soviet era, however, the racquet sport barely survived. A non-Olympic competition that was both expensive and branded with an affiliation to the Romanov dynasty, the Tennis Federation of the USSR boycotted all the international competitions, except for the Davis Cup. Local men’s tennis players were bullied by the other Soviet sportspersons for competing in a “girlie” sport, and about 80 percent of tennis coaches in the USSR were women.

Under Mikhail Gorbachev’s “perestroika” and “glasnost (openness)”  reforms, other former-Soviet countries and Russia strengthened their athletic prowess, especially in tennis. The former Russian president Boris Yeltsin —a man who liked his tennis racquet as much as his vodka — was credited with making it acceptable to participate in tennis once more. So much so, that the national academies, already busy with the Kuznetsovas, Safins, and Kournikovas, started to fill up. But Boris died, Vladimir Putin won the presidency and in the past 25 years, Russia has encroached on the independence of Chechnya, Georgia and lastly, Ukraine. Facing a shortage of sponsorship and training, tennis players had already begun to decamp to former Soviet strongholds, such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and especially, Kazakhstan. “As hurtful as it may sound, nobody cared about me in Russia. And now people care about me. And they do everything for my career to be successful,” said Bublik, who decamped to Kazakhstan in 2016. “Tennis Federation of Kazakhstan — they really look after me. They help, work, create the conditions for me to play well. It was impossible in Russia.”

The 2024 Kazakh Billie Jean King Cup team, from left to right: Elena Rybakina, Zhibek Kulambayeva and Gozal Ainitdinovaa — ative Kazakhs — Yulia Putintseva and Anna Danilina and Galina Voskoboeva.

Now, many current Kazakh players, including Rybakina, who left for the country long before the Ukrainian invasion, not only benefit from the money, but also a conflict-free government.  In retaliation for Ukraine in 2023, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) suspended the Russian Tennis Federation, as did Tennis Europe from all international competition, including the European Junior Tennis Championships, as well as the Davis Cup and Billie Jean Cup. Moreover any Russian player who wanted to play on either the WTA or ATP tours could not compete under the Russian flag.

To Utemuratov, who boxed and played soccer and table tennis in his youth, tennis was a revelation — a physical version of chess that requires versatility, intellect and supreme athleticism. After Kazakhstan became an independent country in 1991, President Nursultan Nazarbayev selected Utemuratov to go to Vienna and find economic opportunities for the new republic. He helped broker Kazakhstan’s first line of credit, founded the Almaty Trade and Finance (ATF) Bank and a key investor of the projects managed by Verny Capital investment group, including two telecommunications operators: “KarTel” in Kazakhstan and “SkyMobile” in Kyrgyzstan, also known as Beeline.

The 2023 Kazakhstani men’s Davis Cup team, from left to right: Timofey Skatov (Russian parents), Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Ukrainian), Alexander Bublik (Russian), Denis Yevseyev (Kazakh) Alexander Shevchenko (Russian), Andrey Golubev (Russian), and captain Yuri Schukin.

By 2007, however, the country’s tennis federation was nearly bankrupt. Utemuratov, “a big fan of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer,” offered his services. The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation started building, spending roughly $200 million to construct 38 tennis centers in all 17 regions of the country. Next, the federation trained hundreds of coaches and instructors, including quite a few from Europe, while subsidizing lessons for adolescents and granting the best juniors $50,000 to pay for training and travel. In 2007, there were just 1,800 registered players in Kazakhstan; there are now 33,000. A staff of 32 at the federation’s headquarters maintain constant contact with coaches across the country to track promising juniors.

“My main goal was to create modern and accessible tennis infrastructure. It was also necessary to lay the foundations for the right training processes and to organize international tournaments,” Utemuratov said in January. Therefore, we have provided talent from all over Kazakhstan with the opportunity to show their worth on the court, and we have also increased competition among players, which contributes to the constant improvement of players’ skills.”

Bulat Zhamituly Utemuratov, 67, the son of a prosecutor and an accountant. became a key advisor to the Kazakh government in 1991 and has since boosted tennis and “stacked” the official team with ex-pat Russians.

But the key to Kazakhstan’s success has always been Russia. Utemuratov made a simple offer to any disgruntled Russian player whom he believed needed more support: Play for Kazakhstan, which shares a language and a history with Russia, and the country will fund your career. Yaroslava Shvedova was an early success,  reaching a career-high ranking of No. 25 in 2012. She made the quarterfinals in the singles of three Grand Slam tournaments and won doubles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Yuri Schukin, who never cracked the Top 100, became one of the country’s top coaches.

For Bublik, the transition was easy. After he made the quarterfinals of a second-tier tournament with barely any help from Russia, he thought about receiving funding from an individual sponsor who treats the player like an investment and takes a share of the player’s winnings. But Utemuratov  approached, and a little more than a year later, Bublik cracked the top 100.

“Yes, I was born in Russia and have lived there for most of my life… Of course, I do feel Russian with my whole family being from Russia. But being a player who represents Kazakhstan in the world arenas is a pleasure for me and I feel very proud,” said Bublik, a native of Gatchina, Russia who now lives in Monte Carlo. “I don’t know how to describe it in words. But it's awesome. Since we have already made a decision to play for Kazakhstan, I am never going back to the Russian team.”

Elena Rybakina holding the Rosewater dish after winning the 2022 Wimbledon final standing next to runner-up, Tunisian Ons Jabeur.

Rybakina has a similar story. Born in Moscow and trained at the Spartak Club, she represented her home country throughout her childhood. Despite reaching a junior career high of No. 3, she did not receive help from the Russian Federation. As her family shouldered the significant costs of her career, they considered alternative paths , including college in the United States. Then Utemuratov quashed her uncertainty, making her the same offer than Bublik couldn’t refuse. In 2018, aged 19, she started playing for Kazakhstan. “I think it was very good timing because they were looking for the player. I was looking for some help,” Rybakina told The Guardian after winning Wimbledon last year, while her fellow Russians were forced to sit out the tournament. “They believed in me. So I think it was very good combination. We just find each other.

“I think I’m also bringing some results, which are very good for the sport in Kazakhstan. For me it’s tough question just to say exactly what I feel.”

For now, Utemuratov and the Kazak Tennis Federation assert they are done recruiting in Russia, but as long as the war wages on the Ukraine, Russia still has 11 WTA players in the Top 100, and six ATP players in the Top 100 — all of them playing flagless and struggling for funds that are going to an endless war,