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Tennis tutor to the stars: Yuri Ouvarov |
‘The best father that any girl could have
wished for’
Daughter speaks of grief over the sudden and tragic death of her father
ALLA Ouvarova had more reason than most to be looking forward to the new year.
The company director, who at the age of just 26 commands her own health food business, is pregnant with her first child and is due to be married next month.
With such an exciting future ahead of her, she could not have foreseen the tragedy that unfolded two weeks ago.
But on the Thursday before Christmas, Alla found herself bravely standing up in the chapel at Hendon cemetery and paying tribute to the man who had helped her every step of the way: Yuri Ouvarov, her father.
To those who didn’t know him he was the Russian tennis coach, who was so depressed by the abrupt closure of a tennis school in Regent’s Park that he hanged himself in protest from a nearby tree.
But to tennis professionals, he was a world class tutor on first name terms with the sport’s champions – Lleyton Hewitt and Martina Hingis among them.
To 200 mourners in the chapel at his funeral he was a dear friend, who had passionately devoted his life to spreading his love of tennis to keen amateurs of all ages.
And to Alla he was simply “the best father that any girl could have wished for”.
By anyone’s standards, Yuri Ouvarov, 54, lived a remarkable life.
One cold winter’s night in 1991, he decided to pack up his bags in St Petersburg and left the Soviet Union and its stagnating economy, in search of a better life for Alla and his family.
The story of how he met his wife Tatiana could be lifted straight from the pages of a romantic novel. They met as teenagers but lost touch when he was conscripted to the Russian army.
A few years later, they bumped into each other in a tennis club in St Petersburg in what has been described as “a chance meeting”, and fell in love.
Alla said: “They met in a bar when he was a teenager. But then he had to go away, to be in the army – everyone has to go the army – and they lost touch. They met up again by chance in a tennis club in St Petersburg a few years later and soon they got married.”
She added: “My parents always had good jobs but at the same time we never really had anything. We came to London for a better life. I am grateful for the experience of growing up in communist Russia. But I remember the bad things – there was no milk or bread and the shops were empty. You had to queue up for everything.”
They settled in Willesden and then Golders Green. Alla is one of three children. Her brother Michael is 24, while her sister Mary turned 14 the day after Mr Ouvarov’s funeral.
Her father fell in love with the Regent’s Park Golf and Tennis School, where his expertise was warmly welcomed, and he worked there for 16 years, thriving on daily training sessions.
He went on to coach the stars, including television presenters Amanda Holden and Des Lynam. Sir Salman Rushdie hired him to coach his son Zafar.
“I have been going through his laptop and phone messages and it is overwhelming how many people have found time to say they miss him,” said Alla, a former Hampstead School pupil who lives in St John’s Wood with her fiancé Murray Chapples.
“It is a real shame that he will not be here to see the baby. It is a real pity and our wedding will not be the same without him.”
When the tennis club closed earlier this year and the site was controversially earmarked for a new five-a-side football complex, Mr Ouvarov was inconsolable – but those closest to him did not realise the severity of his depression.
Alla believes there are still questions left unanswered.
She said: “It has just been such a shock. No one can understand why he would do it. Yes, he lived for his work and loved the tennis school – but it just doesn’t feel right. We knew he was a bit upset and depressed after losing his job – but this is such a shock. Depression is a chemical imbalance of the mind.”
The tragedy has put into perspective the often fiery debate over what should happen to Holford House site of the park and there have been calls for the tennis club to reopen in Mr Ouvarov’s name.
The five-a-side football-centre plan collapsed at the hands of neighbouring Westminster’s planning authority earlier this month.
But while campaigners and politicians will continue their debate over what should happen to the land, Alla said she would simply have “everlasting love” for her father and would cherish her memories of him.
“One thing we used to do together when we came to London was run to the tennis club every morning and then to school,” she said.
“He ran more than 50 marathons in his life and running was something we did together.
“I haven’t run for a while but I was hoping we would start training again after the baby is born.
“I just loved him so much.” |
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