Boris Yeltsin, the animated former Russian president died on Monday of congestive heart failure. He took the topped Russian position from 1991 to 1999 and was quite popular among the Russian people. In fact, he was the first Russian president in the country’s history to win by a majority.

After politics, he maintained a low profile and wasn’t a news-worthy item except for this deteriorating health issues and his public love for tennis. Many people credit Yeltsin for main-streaming tennis to the Russian public. Tennis was a mainly an upper-class sport and trailed against hugely popular soccer, and ice-hockey.

From Reuters UK: To be recognized as a truly national game in Russia, tennis, a highly individual sport, had to achieve something special to bring the whole country together. That day came on December 1, 2002 when Russia won its first major team trophy — the Davis Cup — by edging France 3-2 in the Paris final after an amazing comeback by Mikhail Youzhny. Youzhny, a late substitute for Kafelnikov, beat Paul-Henri Mathieu in the deciding fifth rubber and became the first player in the event’s 102-year history to win a match in the final after losing the first two sets. Yeltsin was an integral part of that success. Not only did he make the trip to Paris to support the team, he sat in the VIP box along with French President Jacques Chirac during the entire three-day encounter, cheering wildly at every winning point for Russia.