Shamil Tarpischev has been the face of Russian tennis since ’73. That’s one heck of a run. We’re talking Leonid Brezhnev and the Soyuz spacecraft here. In that time, the head of the Russian Tennis has been on the bench for more than 100 Davis and Fed Cup ties, and is one of three men to captain winning Davis AND Fed Cup teams. He’s also built up the kind of respect other captains can only dream of. “He’s done a lot for tennis,” says Vitaly Gorin, a NorCal-based pro who has coached the likes of Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn.
Gorin, whose namesake Gorin Tennis Academy is located in Granite Bay, has been busy helping Kazakhstan kick-start its tennis for the last few years and now Gorin will serve as Tarpischev’s advisor. “I’m trying to find young Dmitry Tursunovs,” Gorin told IT from Moscow, “then hooking them up with coaches and academies.” As he works with Tarpischev — a man whom he calls “a phenomenal politician and an interesting philosopher” — Gorin hopes to attract more pro events to Russia.
