Utemuratov, $250 million over 19 years for Kazakh tennis: “We’re building the champions of the future”
Bulat Utemuratov didn’t start playing tennis until he turned 40, but his love for the sport was so overwhelming that he attempted a seemingly impossible feat: buying a country’s tennis court. Or rather, building a country’s tennis court from scratch, because in Kazakhstan there was nothing to buy: 60 courts and a thousand registered players in a vast territory of 2.7 million square kilometers.
When Utemuratov became president of the Kazakh Tennis Federation in 2007, he found a letter on his table from his predecessors at the ITF (now World Tennis): they requested the suspension of membership due to the inability to pay membership fees. The first thing he did was pay off his debts and re-establish institutional relations.
He then launched a development plan, investing $250 million of his own money. “Donated,” he specifies, during our long conversation in a suite at the Almaty Arena, during the ATP 250 tournament won by world number 5 Daniil Medvedev. Utemuratov, in fact, is both a businessman and a philanthropist, with a net worth of $5.4 billion according to Forbes. He built his fortune in the 1990s in metals trading and by founding ATF Bank, which he sold to UniCredit in 2007 for $2.2 billion. He later diversified his investments into mining, real estate and telecommunications.
The first thing we asked him was why he decided to spend so much money on tennis. “First of all, because I have the financial means. Second, because I love tennis. This sport has become part of my life. I started from scratch, but that’s precisely what made the project exciting: I wanted to see how quickly I could bring Kazakh tennis to an international level.”
Less than twenty years later, the results are incontrovertible: today, Kazakhstan has 39 modern tennis centers, for a total of 391 clay and hard courts, and a plan has been approved to build 15 more, to reach 551 courts by 2035. Furthermore, the Federation, which employs 580 qualified coaches and has achieved Gold status from World Tennis, organizes over 250 tournaments a year. It has brought more than 36,000 children to play tennis in daycare centers and schools and has subsidized lessons for younger children, who can practice up to six days a week for between $40 and $120 a month.
“There is a parallel with the development of Kazakhstan itself,” says Bulat Utemuratov. “As you know, we only became independent in 1991. The country began to grow by leaps and bounds, there was enormous enthusiasm. After independence, we understood that we needed a different growth rate, that we needed to develop. Under the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan had fallen behind in many respects. Resources, including those allocated to sport, were allocated centrally and often according to a residual criterion. These were challenges that affected the entire country. And I, in parallel, tried to develop tennis at the same speed. You can compare the two paths, considering how far Kazakhstan has come. When you start investing in tennis, you start with infrastructure. But then a chain of needs is triggered. If you build courts, you need coaches. You need tournaments, athlete training, work with children from a very young age. These are problems that emerge as you delve deeper into the project. And naturally, you realize that you have to continue to invest, invest more and more”.
What made Kazakhstan a powerhouse on the tennis scene was the naturalization process of those talents born in Russia and excluded from Moscow’s subsidies. Utemuratov welcomed them like a father, funding their development. And they repaid him with glory: Elena Rybakina became the WTA’s number one, and when she won Wimbledon in 2022, repeating this year at the Australian Open and the US Open, the first thing she did was run to the stands on Centre Court to hug Bulat; Alexander Bublik, meanwhile, broke into the top ten of the ATP rankings last January. “We decided to involve players from abroad so they could become role models. We wanted children to be inspired by them, to see how professionals train, play, and behave. In the first week after Elena’s triumph at Wimbledon, around 700 children signed up for tennis lessons.”
The encounter with the teenage Bublik was a fortuitous one. “I had booked two hours to play tennis at a club near Monte Carlo, in Beaulieu. Bublik’s father approached me and asked, ‘Mr. Utemuratov, could Alexander use your time sometimes when you’re not playing?’…” Today, his relationship with those young men who have become international stars is very close. They invite him to watch the matches from the boxes with the teams, and he doesn’t refuse. “I’d rather cheer from there than sit in the presidential box.”
The challenge now is to produce champions at home. The results are encouraging: Zangar Nurlanuly and Amir Omarkhanov have entered the top ten of the world youth rankings. As a reward, they received a wild card to participate in the Almaty tournament, recognized by the ATP as one of the best in the 250 category. “We have everything it takes to get the upgrade; in some respects, we are even close to a Masters 1000. We are in negotiations with some 500 tournament owners to purchase the license and transfer it to Almaty.”
Bulat Utemuratov is also vice president of World Tennis, and some say he could become the international federation’s leader, succeeding David Haggerty in 2027, given his relationships with great champions like Nadal and Djokovic. He’s already fully involved in global tennis affairs. Regarding the fragmented governance—with seven entities (ATP, WTA, the four Grand Slams, and World Tennis) managing the tournaments—he has a clear vision:
“Tennis could benefit from greater coordination, because its ecosystem is undervalued by the market. We need to create greater synergies in commercial projects, the media, and other sectors. This sport has enormous potential to be exploited, if only we could collaborate more effectively.” This also applies to seriously addressing the injury problem. “The players are right to raise the issue of reducing the number of tournaments and workload. Think of Sinner, who is struggling with an injury, or Alcaraz, who was forced to sit out. Tennis is the only sport in which athletes are involved practically year-round. We need to intervene, including with scheduling: matches must be played in the middle of the night. Athletes must be protected, finding a balance between different interests.”
Utemuratov, who will be attending the Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna, praises Italian tennis: “You are an example to everyone. As the Kazakh Federation, we have studied the FITP experience and signed a collaboration agreement.” Before leaving, he also highlights the work of his foundation, which is separate from its investments in tennis: since 2014, over $250 million has been spent on charitable initiatives. “We try to help people in areas where the government can’t provide all the necessary support. For example, children with autism. During the Soviet era, they were referred to neurologists or psychiatrists, and families tended to withdraw. We’ve opened 14 specialized centers, and parents know they can receive qualified assistance. Many tennis stars have seen this firsthand: in the past, Djokovic and Alcaraz, and this year, Rublev, who played with a group of children in Almaty. These encounters filled me with joy.”
In many cases, the progress is extraordinary: children are developing skills that allow them to participate more fully in society. And families understand much better the importance of early assessment and starting support as soon as possible. Thanks to the foundation, Kazakhstan has made enormous progress. “But it’s an issue that concerns the entire world and must be addressed systematically, through well-structured programs,” adds Utemuratov.Autism is the foundation’s flagship project: it has now encompassed 13 “Asyl Miras” centers in 12 cities across Kazakhstan, providing care to over 17,500 children. But its commitment extends to other areas: interventions to support communities affected by natural disasters, innovative technology that includes drone-assisted planting in particularly challenging weather conditions, the construction of schools and creative centers for children, and support for cultural initiatives aimed at preserving Kazakhstan’s artistic and intellectual heritage.
