MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti) – An intergalactic tennis tournament of Russian Black Sea Fleet officers, cosmonauts and tennis players from the Crimean city of Sevastopol began at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Russian space agency said.
“The intergalactic tennis tournament, The Baikonur Racket, is being held for the third time this year. Traditionally, cosmonauts who play tennis participate in the tournament,” the Roscosmos spokesman said.
The space team includes cosmonauts Aleksander Ivanchenkov, Aleksander Laveykin and Valery Tokarev, Sergei Treshchov, and Sergei Zaletin, who is preparing for a spacewalk next year.
The Baikonur sport courts will see Konstantin Zatulin, the director of the CIS Countries Institute, Black Sea Fleet Captain Igor Kolosov, the head of the Sevastopol tennis federation Vladimir Boryaev and other public figures and businessmen.
The tournament is organized by the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, the CIS Countries Institute and the Gagarin Tennis Club, with the support of Roscosmos and the city administration of Baikonur.
The tennis matches will be judged by a famous Russian coach, Eduard Khanyan, and Tennis-Plus magazine's editor-in-chief, Natalya Cherepanova.
Winners will receive trophies shaped like rockets, Roscosmos said.
