"Well, where we are." Photo by T. GARANIN
Author: Dmitry Grantsev
Published on 18 January 12 (0:05)
The article "break the ice. As a tennis player, Dementieva won the heart of hockeyAfinogenov "out of the room: AMF number 3


Not at first sight
- How did your romance start?

Maxim Afinogenov: I'd often watched Lena's matches on TV. Nothing personal, I just like tennis. I didn’t intend on getting acquainted with her. But in 2004 my friends and I flew to Paris to Roland Garros. I first saw Lena in the flesh there. I invited her to sit down with us at a table, but she gave me such an indignant look that I almost sank into the ground. But just in that moment I thought Lena is every man's dream. I decided that I would get her, no matter what.

Elena Dementieva: Of course, I was outraged then! Young people sitting in the tennis stadium, drinking wine, playing cards and offered me to join them. I don’t accept such behavior! For me, Roland Garros is a holy place. I didn’t like all this at all. But Max came to all my matches in Paris, was supporting. And after the tournament, when we were celebrating the Russian final with a big company in a restaurant, we got to know each other better... By the way, Max and I could have met much earlier. Back in 1999 my mother and I were invited to a hockey match in Miami. Our places on the stands were next to Maxim’s parents. My mother met them, talked, they exchanged phone numbers. And then she told me: let's invite this family for dinner, they are nice people, they have a young son playing hockey. I looked at her and firmly said: "No. I'm not interested." I then had a deep conviction that I don’t want to get acquainted with athletes.

- You were married only just seven years after meeting at the Roland Garros. Why did it take so long?

ED: All these seven years we were focused on our careers. Sport took the main place in our lives. Also it took us quite a long time to get close. Maxim didn’t immediately enter the family circle. My mother didn’t welcome him as cordially as I would have liked. It was a long, trying process. I can’t say that I immediately saw him as my future husband.

MA: With athletes, thing rarely happen like with normal people. We didn’t even have a honeymoon, because only a few days after the wedding I started training camp in St. Petersburg. But I will come up with something for this summer. I will amaze my wife for sure! Vacation for us is when I'm at tennis and Lena at hockey (laughs.


- Apparently tennis and hockey players get along. Anastasia Myskina dated a CSKA player; it seems Maria Kirilenko has a romance with Alexander Ovechkin...

ED: It's simple. Tennis - a very cruel individual sport. We're all big egoists. It’s very difficult with such character in real life. But hockey as a team sport creates an entirely different personality. A person, who you can always lean on, helping out in any situation. In a relationship tennis-hockey there’s a process of mutual exchange of human qualities. We complement each other. Take for example Maxim’s main trait, which still amazes me – he’s not nonchalant. You don’t need to ask him or hint, Max is always ready to help in any situation. Such people are rare. It’s this quality that conquered me.

On the stove and on the couch
- Andre Agassi says he is under the thumb of his wife Steffi Graf. He’s won less tennis tournaments than his wife and is now doing all kitchen stuff. How is it in your family? Are titles also measured?


MA: That’s what they look at in America: who, what, how much ... As for us in Russia, there's a clear division: women - at the stove, men - on the couch! Regardless of merit or salary! Although, if it’s necessary, I could always fry an omelet for Lena.

- Can life break the family boat? (I don’t don’t how to properly translate this boat idiom in English; also life here means mundane daily obligations)

MA: You know, Lena and I are always on the road. So for now, life to us is even joyful and the boat is sailing. Of course, in my dreams I would like it to be always unsinkable.

- About travelling - Lena is studying in Moscow, Maxim has a contract with SKA St. Petersburg. It is difficult to live in two cities?