Tennis Ace Folds Career For Poker

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Tennis Ace Folds Career For Poker

Russian Star Trades Raquet For Chips

POSTED: 1:47 pm EST November 15, 2004
UPDATED: 8:10 am EST November 16, 2004

LONDON, England — Former world No. 1 star Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia has decided to stop playing tennis in order to concentrate his efforts on becoming a professional poker player.

“I have retired, but I have not officially announced it yet,” Kafelnikov said in Monday’s Independent newspaper. “Some people still think I am just taking a break, but I believe that my time in tennis has gone by. Even if I came back, I would have no chance to play at the level I was.”

The 30-year-old Kafelnikov hasn’t competed on the ATP since suffering a second-round loss in St. Petersburg in his native Russia in October of last year.

Kafelnikov is playing in a poker tournament in Maidstone, just south of London, this week.

The 6-foot-3 Kafelnikov, who reached No. 1 in May of 1999, captured the 1996 French Open, the 1999 Australian Open and claimed an Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000. He amassed 26 singles titles and 27 doubles crowns on his way to $23,883,797 in career prize money and won 609 of his 915 singles matches, with his last singles championship coming in Milan in February of last year.

Copyright 2004. Courtesy of SportsNetwork.