The actual trophy - the silver Davis Cup - was placed in the middle of the central court. The heroes of the Davis Cup ties stepped out on the court along with the captains who coached the national team of several generations, including such emeritus players as Sergei Likhachev, Vladimir Korotkov, Tomas Leyus, Alexander Ivanov, Teymuraz Kakuliya, Alexander Metreveli, Konstantin Pugaev, Sergei Leonyuk, Andrei Olkhovsky, Andrei Cherkasov, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Mikhail Yuzhny, Davis Cup captain Vadim Borisov (a former Davis Cup player himself), and the two last captains - Anatoly Lepeshin and Shamil Tarpischev.

The tennis fans could watch on a big screen selected episodes from Davis Cup ties featuring Soviet and then Russian players. The chairman of the Russian Sports Committee Vyacheslav Fetisov awarded the famous Russian player Yevgeny Kafelnikov with the Order of Honor and Marat Safin (who brought his team two winning points in last year's Davis Cup final) was awarded the Order of People's Friendship.

The most emotional moment of the event was the short speech by Russia's first president BorisYeltsin addressed to the veterans and the actual players of the Russian national team. Boris Yeltsin wished all the ceremony participants good health and wished every success to the members of the Russian national men's team whom he wants to win the Davis Cup in 2004 and also to play successfully at the Olympics in Athenes. Boris Yeltsin also wished success to the Russian national women's team in the Federal Cup semifinals vs France to be played in one month and a half in Moscow.


http://www.kremlincup.ru/press-center/9-e.html