Sasson: Gene Scott said that 3 Ts always go together: Tennis, Trade and Tourism. Hence the Kremlin Cup, from the onset, also included a business symposium organized by Gene. Among the speakers at the first Kremlin Cup business symposium were Jonathan Bush, President George H.W. Bush’s brother, as well as the presidents of our sponsor companies Bayer and Italtel, and other business people such as the director of the Israeli food company Osem. This business symposium became one of the highlights of the Kremlin Cup. It was packed with Russian and foreign media, which enhanced the tournament’s public image even more.
Gollar: On the last night of the first Kremlin Cup, we held a big party in the Kremlin Palace. The Russians invited 2000 guests (and we paid, in rubles). This party became a tradition for subsequent tournaments as well.
At parties in Russia, there are usually high tables for people to stand beside. Imagine almost 2000 people standing at high tables. We stood at the head table with Silaev and other VIPs.
There was a beautiful folklore dance performance from Georgia, but then Igor Volk from our organizing team gave a speech, and it was not a good one: In his speech, he enumerated all the mistakes we made, and said how he saved everything. It sounded like we didn’t do anything but disturb, and he did everything. Sasson was furious, but what could we do? The party ended at 22:30 (like every event in Moscow at the time), and the next day was the final match of the tournament. Silaev came, we entered the stadium last, and went to our box. There was a lot of press and many photographers