[1] In his breakthrough year in 1994, Kafelnikov won three titles, reached the Hamburg Masters final and beat world top-5 players on six occasions.

He also defeated three top-10 players (Michael Stich, Goran Ivanisevic and Boris Becker) on his way to the title in Milan.

At the 1996 French Open, Kafelnikov became the first Russian to ever win a Grand Slam title, defeating Michael Stich in the final in straight sets, having beaten world No.

[2] Kafelnikov was finalist at the 1997 ATP Tour World Championships, and won three titles during that season.

At the 1999 Australian Open, 10th seed Kafelnikov won his second singles Grand Slam title, defeating Thomas Enqvist in the final in four sets.

1 Gustavo Kuerten in the quarterfinals of the US Open for the loss of just seven games, before losing to Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals.

[3] Since retiring from tennis, Kafelnikov cashed three times at the 2005 World Series of Poker.

In 2009 and 2010, he participated in the ATP Champions Tour (for retired ATP-professional tennis players), finishing in third place in tournaments in Chengdu, Bogotá and São Paulo.

[5] In May 2017, Kafelnikov was extensively interviewed by the most popular Russian website Sports.ru considering his current political preferences.

[7][8] In March 2021, Kafelnikov faced another wave of rumors about his retirement in 2003 as really being caused by ATP's desire to avoid a betting scandal considering his match in Lyon against Fernando Vicente.

[10] One week after his match in 2003, Kafelnikov said about the accusations: "This is a complete bullshit, but now in the locker room, they [players] look at me like at an enemy of the people.

Lindsay Davenport correspondingly voiced some support for Kafelnikov's claim who was also worried "it would be a shame to see the public lose sympathy in me just because I am making such a statement".