Blame It on Boris? Well, Maybe

It's a cardinal rule of politics to avoid being associated with losers. At the Davis Cup, Boris Yeltsin broke that rule in a big way.


The president's flamboyant entrance into the Olympic Sports Center stands Friday night, which caused an unscheduled delay of several minutes, could hardly be blamed entirely for Alexander Volkov's defeat. He had already squandered his match point at 5-4 in the fifth against Stefan Edberg moments before.


But it was a case of remarkably bad timing -- heightened by the fact that Volkov never regained his advantage and Russia never recovered from its disastrous start.


Volkov, perhaps diplomatically, said Yeltsin's appearance did not affect his play, "because I'd already lost my serve." But Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who was waiting in the wings for his match, was less charitable.


"What sensible person in a decisive game like this, with the score 5-5, would do something like that?" Russia's top player asked later, news agencies reported. "He created a five-minute pause. The players cooled off. That probably affected Alexander."


Team captain Vadim Borisov also was critical of the president's entry. "I think it interfered," he said Friday. He backpedaled Monday, however, saying he believed Volkov when he said Yeltsin had not distracted him.


Edberg, who did not even realize it was Yeltsin who caused the commotion until a television interview after the game, was thankful for the break. "It actually gave me some extra time," he said.


Presidential spokesman Alexander Orfyonov said Yeltsin had been too busy to arrive earlier but added that he doubted that Yeltsin's entry could have distracted Volkov.


"A top professional does not pay attention to this," Orfyonov said in an interview Monday. "On the contrary, the arrival of a head of state should have given him a moral boost. If it influenced him, he will have to do some homework on his psychological strength."


Perhaps Yeltsin, a well-known tennis buff, will think twice about when he arrives next time. He chose not to show up at all Saturday or Sunday.


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In the midst of thousands of cheering Russian fans in the giant Olympic Sports Center, two islands of blue and yellow did a pretty good job of holding their own throughout the three-day tournament. They chanted back and forth to each other, waved large national flags, egged on the players, sang the Swedish anthem and tried to start "the wave." "Swedes are stiff at home," conceded G?ran Sundstr?m, "but not abroad."


The most prominent figure was garrulous Hasse Hanson, clad all in yellow, his face painted, and sporting a cap with enormous Viking horns. Hanson is well-known to the Swedish team, fans and television audiences back home: he has been at virtually every national team championship athletic event around the world since 1952.


Sundstr?m's group of fans -- perhaps 20-strong -- sang repeatedly to Hanson's slightly more numerous throng on the other side of the court. "We're saying to the other side, 'Hello Sweden, are you ready?'" explained Sundstr?m. "It's more poetic in Swedish, of course."


While the Russian fans refused to do the wave, the Swedish fans finally were indulged by their team. After clinching the win Saturday and again after the awards presentation Sunday, team captain John Anders Sjogren and the rest of the squad lined up facing each of the main groups of fans in the audience and flung their arms up in wave-like style, to wild Swedish cheering.





--Sander Thoenes contributed to this article.