Yevgeny Kafelnikov was never likely to be the type of player seen lounging around locker rooms or exchanging glib anecdotes on comfy TV sofas once his playing career came to an end.

The notoriously surly Russian courted few friends on the circuit and embroiled himself in a war of words with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi after claiming tennis players were not paid enough to play.

"I don't really care what American democratic opinion is," sniffed Kafelnikov, after Agassi suggested the Russian "take his prize money and go buy some perspective".

"I'm a stand-up guy and I say what I want," he continued.

Kafelnikov, a former world number one and grand slam champion in both Australia and France, played his last tour match in St Petersburg in October 2003, when he was beaten in straight sets by Mikhail Youzhny.

Despite still being ranked inside the world's top 50, Kafelnikov chose to walk away from his sport. If there were few in the game who mourned his departure, Kafelnikov appeared to miss the game even less.

But after five years spent supplementing his £12million career earnings on the world poker tour, Kafelnikov has finally conceded his love for the game and, perhaps even more surprisingly, the media circus which accompanies it.

Kafelnikov, now 34, returned at the Blackrock Tour of Champions event in Eindhoven this week, losing all three of his matches but admitting he was just glad to be back.

"I put two photos of myself together, one when I was playing and a recent one, and it was like looking at two different people," said Kafelnikov, whose weight ballooned by over five stones. "It was time to act.

"I said to myself 'no, you can't do that to your body'. Fortunately, my lows were not so deep so I got out of it. I want to say thanks so much to everyone for giving me the opportunity to come back and play."

It hardly sounds like the same Kafelnikov who stalked arrogantly around the court in his prime, claiming the Roland Garros crown in 1996 and back-to-back Australian titles in 1999 and 2000.

In addition, Kafelnikov won three career grand slam doubles titles and was part of the Russian team that won the Davis Cup for the first time in their history over France in 2002.

"Basically, I burned out," said Kafelnikov of his decision to retire from the game. "I got to the stage where I couldn't take it any longer. The fact that you need to travel, the media attention, and the saddest thing - the losses.

"Deep down inside I felt like I belonged to the really elite group of players, which is the top five or top 10 at worst. But it got to the stage where I started to lose to players who would hardly win a game against me when I was at my best."

But now Kafelnikov, who has a 10-year-old daughter, says he wants to get fit and give something back to the game from which he took so much - if, according to his brusque former self, not enough.

"After one or two years of being away in the shadows where nobody sees you, you don't talk to people or the media, it becomes boring. As you get older and wiser you see life from a different angle and your perspective changes.

"When I was playing on the tour I had quite an ego and that's understandable. I was there to win and it comes with the territory. That's why I'm here - people want to see me because I was once number one in the world.

"People want to see the guys they idolised. Now, as we get older, we're really thankful that people want to see us. It's really wonderful, and we're going to try to give our best back."

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