Yevgeny Kafelnikov was born in Sochi on 18 February 1974 and turned professional in 1992. Tall at 1.90 m, he was successful in both singles and doubles throughout his career.
His first major came at the 1996 French Open, where he won the singles title and the doubles as well. He won the French Open doubles again in 1997 and 2002 and the 1997 US Open doubles, four major doubles titles in all, and in 1997 he reached the final of the season-ending championships. In January 1999 he won his second singles major at the Australian Open, and on 3 May 1999 he became world No. 1. He stayed at the top until 13 June. He also reached the US Open semifinals in 1999 and 2001, and his best Wimbledon result was a quarterfinal in 1995.
In 2000 he returned to the Australian Open final but lost to Andre Agassi. At the Sydney Olympics that year he won the singles gold medal. Two years later he helped Russia win the Davis Cup in 2002.
Kafelnikov won 26 singles titles and 27 doubles titles, 53 in all, with a 609–306 singles record, and reached No. 4 in the doubles rankings in March 1998. He played his last ATP Tour match in St Petersburg in October 2003; Wikipedia's summary gives his retirement as 2010, the year of his last senior events. After tennis he turned to other sports and games: he cashed three times at the 2005 World Series of Poker and won the Russian Amateur Open golf championship in 2011, and he played ATP Champions Tour events in 2009 and 2010. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2019.