Russia: Retired Tennis Star <PERSON> to Run for Parliament · Global Voices
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.
Russian tennis phenomenon, <PERSON>, has announced that he will run for the Russian State Duma in the December 4 elections. Born in Moscow in 1980, Mr. <PERSON> began his professional tennis career in 1997. In 2000 he became the number 1 ranked player in the world when he defeated <PERSON> in order to win the US Open. He won the Australian Open in 2005 and helped lead the Russian team to Davis Cup victories in 2002 and 2006.
Certainly, Mr. <PERSON> is a talented athlete. However, his public image, as illustrated by citizen media outlets, has until now not been focused on public service.
Russian Politics for Dummies Blog announced Mr. <PERSON>'s campaign in a post on October 28:
<PERSON>, the 2000 US Open winner and 2005 Australian Open champion, said he was serious about his political ambitions.
“I am running for Federal Parliament in Russia,” <PERSON> told the ATP Champions Tour website.
“The elections are on December 4th so I will find out soon. It’s a new challenge. I think I am an intelligent guy and I have a lot to bring and a lot of ideas about things and what to do. I am very committed to it.”
<PERSON> added: “I could be the best looking guy in the Duma, but that’s only because all the other guys are over 60.”
<PERSON> at the XV International ATP tennis tournament St. Petersburg Open 2009. Photo by <PERSON>, copyright © <PERSON> (27/10/2009).
Russian blogger, <PERSON>, contrasted his admiration [ru] for Mr. <PERSON>'s athletic ability to his distaste for Mr. <PERSON>'s antics in an August 2011 post:
[…] I must say that I play tennis a bit myself, and for a long time <PERSON> was a man I admired. His graceful game sometimes reminded me of a tiger. However, I was always annoyed by his antics with the smashing of rackets, etc. 880
Honestly I do not know what he needs politics for. Maybe just because it's trendy. […]
<PERSON>, GlobalPost blog's senior correspondent in Moscow, placed Mr. <PERSON>'s State Duma run into political and geographical context in her July post:
What does somebody like <PERSON> do after retiring from tennis? There are plenty of options: he could model, he could act, he could marry me, I mean, somebody.
But this is Russia and if you want to stay on top here, best to link up with United Russia. And guess what – that’s what <PERSON> is doing.
According to the United Russia website, <PERSON> is taking part in the election primaries currently being held in consort with the People’s Front (I wrote about them this weekend). The idea is to formulate United Russia’s candidate list for the December elections. <PERSON> is standing for the Nizhny Novgorod region, which is weird, considering he was born in Moscow, to ethnic Tatar parents, and Nizhny has nothing to do with either one or the other. […]
Mr. <PERSON>'s own 2006 blog – which is hosted in Russian here and translated into English on the ATP World Tour site – offers insight into his life as a tennis player. In one blog entry, he discussed his relationship with his parents:
[…] Last night my father called me at around 1am and asked me to use one of my cars to take my grandfather to a medical check this morning. Since I am a good son, I told him to come to the apartment in the morning and pick up the keys. When he arrived, I gave him some laundry as a present for my mum…
For some reason, after a certain age our lovable parents enjoy doing things for their kids, like laundry, looking after your flat when you are not around. They are just happy to do anything, anytime for their kids. But when you are young, you have to do all these things, laundry, doing the dishes, cleaning the apartment and all the c—p you hate doing, when the only thing you want to do is go out, hang out with your friends and do whatever is on your mind. Every age has its good parts and bad parts, it is important that you enjoy both of them. […]
And here are Mr. <PERSON>'s thoughts about what it is like to participate in a tennis tournament:
[…] The day was long, the ladies took over on court and they took forever to decide who wanted to win and lose. 148