Former No. 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov was just one a few million Russians to be pleased that his country was named as the host of the 2018 World Cup.
“I’m very happy that we’re going to see such a big event in our country,” said Kafelnikov, who fell to Greg Rusedski 6-4, 6-2 at the AEGON Masters Tennis in London. “I am a big football fan. So I’ll definitely use every opportunity to watch every match I can, especially every match that Russia is playing in. To be fair I really thought England was going to get it. England is such a major football country and has such a football empire I’d really thought they would have the strongest bid. So this is a big surprise to me.”