SAPRONOV: “The biggest shortcoming of the current Federation is its approach to the national team”

Kharkov resident Yuriy Sapronov, who was once the sponsor of Elina Svitolina and served as the first vice-president of the Ukrainian Tennis Federation, in an exclusive interview with Sport.ua expressed his opinion on the working principles of its formation. national team of the country.

– By the way, what do you think about the situation when players refuse to play for the national team? Evgeny Zukin said that there are various reasons, but most often the situation is complicated by financial problems.

– Based on my experience, I think it should be. In 2007, I was the first vice-president of the Ukrainian Tennis Federation under the chairmanship of Vadym Shulman. Vadik told me: Yura, take all women’s tennis. In addition to quite a number of tournaments, the ITF and even the 100,000th tournament we played in Kharkiv during this time, I built a team. The captain of the national team was Vladimir Bogdanov, the manager of the national team was Vsevolod Kevlich. What I did? I undertook the contract with Ukraine’s first racket, Alena Bondarenko, then Masha Korytseva and Yulia Fedak. And a year later – Katya Bondarenko.

It was 2007, Alena Bondarenko was 38th in the standings, Katya Bondarenko was 79th, Yulia was somewhere between 90 and 100, and the Ukrainian team was 36th in the world rankings. In 2008, Alena was already in the 19th place, this is her best rating, Katya got into the top 50, Tanya Perebeynos was in the top 100, Masha – about a hundred. And with this team, we were sixth in the world when I left in 2010 and we were in the quarterfinals of the Fed Cup, we were in the top eight of world group one. No one has yet repeated this with these players. Moreover, the Ukrainian national team has not ranked sixth in the world in any team sport in the world ranking.

Now I close my eyes and fast forward 10 years to 2019. I have players: Elina Svitolina in world third, Dayana Yastremskaya 21-22, Lesya Tsurenko 23-25 ​​and Marta Kostyuk in the top 50. Yes, I would play with this team in the final! Yes, it is subjective. But there is a chance with this squad. An opportunity to take advantage. Everyone is always given a chance. From where? This is a very complex process. The biggest disadvantage of the current federation’s approach to the national team: you need to talk to the players. Federation President, or at least Vice President, hats off to Sergei Lagur, because you have to look for other tennis fans who want to invest in tennis during the war. But the Federation administration should speak personally with Evgeny Zukin and the guys trying to work for the national team, the players and their families.

I spoke with Bondarenko’s parents, Honored Coach of Ukraine Natalia Bondarenko, Fedak’s parents and coach, Tanya Perebeinos’ parents, Maria Korytseva’s parents. You also need to contact their personal trainer. Not to instruct the fifth aide, but to speak in person. I did. When I built this base after me, Vsevolod Kevlich and Vladimir Bogdanov joined. But the main thing: you need to talk personally, both with the players and with their close circle. Get off Mount Olympus, get your ass up and go to Krasilovka on the conditional, sit down for tea with the mother of Alena and Katya. This is the first and very important.

Because also, when the talk is about money, everything is resolved there. First, the national team has 2-3 games a year. Let’s say a week of preparation, a week of play, and then a player is injured and relegated for two weeks. About four weeks. Let’s see how much this player earns on average weekly. And his compensation is the amount of four weeks.

Where to get this money is another question. Don’t you have that much money? Okay, Yura Sapronov goes and says to the girls: We have a lot of money. For a match we won, I think there is now a guarantee of between 45,000 and 55,000 euros for a match of the Billie Jean King Cup. Federation money. But the players playing in the national team are also the Federation. 3/4 of this amount must be reserved by the players. It was not considered sufficient. Okay, let’s call Korogodsky, Sapronov, Fuchs, Shevchenko, Rebrov, Butkevich, who were once somehow connected with tennis. Call and say “Harry Davidovich, we’ll give you 2 accreditations for all Wimbledon, please add 10k, we don’t have enough money for the national team”.

To say that a player has to play for the national team – yes, honor of the flag, patriotism and war, this is important. But have you talked to Angelina Kalinina and her husband, coach or family? The Federation did not give anything to Kalinina. That’s why we have to come and say: “Angelina, I’m sorry, please, there were moments, we remember them.” But for some reason, the vast majority believe that the word “sorry” is the position of the weak. And all my life I thought this was the case of the strong. Human, honest, fair stance. You want 20,000 guarantees but I have 10 but we need to talk. I don’t know how strong this or that player’s complaints are against Sapronov, Kevlich, Zukin or Lagur. But we need to talk. Come in person for tea, not by phone. This is the main mistake of the Federation administration’s approach to the Ukrainian team.

Yes, now the state has set aside 18 million hryvnia for the Tennis Federation, but that’s money. I understand that someone pays for the tickets there, there are trainings, there are rackets, I understand everything. There is never enough money. But I know that every victory has a price. From 2007 to 2010, I spent no less than a million dollars on the national team or the players. And so for four years. I’m not sure if I spent 1.5 million, we would have played the semi-finals. Probably, if happiness drops, then yes, but not very high. Once again, we had a player in the top 20 and a player in the top 50. And in 2019 we have one player in the top 3, two players in the top 25 and a player at fifty dollars. Kapets! Just a dream. God, why didn’t I have it?