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Nazvi Careem

Newly crowned French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov has been confirmed for October's $4.6 million Marlboro Championships at Victoria Park.

  Kafelnikov, 22, on Sunday, became the first Russian to win a Grand Slam singles title when he defeated Germany's Michael Stich 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) in the French Open final at Roland Garros.

  He is the third top-10 player to sign up for the October 15-20 tournament along with world number one Pete Sampras, whom Kafelnikov defeated in the French Open semi-finals, and former world number one and last year's French champion, Austrian Thomas Muster.

  Kafelnikov also won the French doubles title with Daniel Vacek, making him the first player since Ken Rosewall in 1968 to win both the singles and doubles in the same year at the French Open.

  Organisers, who had secured the world number five's signature before he won in France, were crossing their fingers in the hope that Kafelnikov would defeat former Wimbledon champion Stich in the final.

  They are now able to boast three big-name players with more expected to be announced in the near future.

  Haider Barma, president of the Hong Kong Tennis Patrons' Association, said: 'We are very excited to provide Hong Kong tennis fans with the opportunity to witness first-hand the skills of this impressive young player.

  'The strength and depth of the field competing at our event this year is quite simply the best yet.'   Kafelnikov has 10 singles titles to his name, three of them - Adelaide, Prague and the French Open - coming this year.

  After reaching the semi-finals of the French last year, beating Andre Agassi on the way, Kafelnikov vowed to go one better in 1996.

  He fulfilled his promise with a hard-fought win over Stich. In the semi-finals, Kafelnikov prevented Sampras from winning the one Grand Slam title which he has yet to win.

  The Marlboro Championships singles competition will feature 12 players divided into four groups of three with the top player in each group, after a round-robin, advancing to the semi-finals.



Russian's victory a boon for HK event