It's sad, but the truth is we don't have a competitive male player. Tennis is very popular in Russia but our guys always choose to play football( soccer) and hockey over it. Our ladies, on the other hand, (perhaps due the Kournikova effect in the late 90's) dream about becoming a tennis star. In the late 70's and in the 80's, the girls wanted to be olympic gymnasts, but, as Dylan would say, things have changed.