FIRST RUSSIAN STUDENT AT SOUTHEAST ADJUSTS TO CITY

Elena Novikova may think of herself as a stranger in a strange land. But she's no stranger to tennis.

The 16-year-old Russian tennis player from Moscow will start school this fall at Southeast Missouri State University. School officials say she's the first Russian to attend Southeast.

Coming from a city of 9 million people, Cape Girardeau is a small town to Novikova. But that suits her just fine.

"I like the town. It's so green and clean. It resembles some of the towns in the Baltic republics," Novikova said Friday as she tried to cope with her new surroundings.

Novikova is attending Southeast on a tennis scholarship.

"We recruited her through the mail and by phone," said Allen Hope, Southeast's tennis coach.

"She will probably be our number one player," he added. Novikova is among the top 50 tennis players in the under-18 age group in the former Soviet Union.

"There are some good players over there," said Hope.

In fact, he is already trying to recruit another Russian player for next year.

Hope said the university's tennis team is comprised mostly of foreign students.

Novikova said she started playing tennis when she was 7 years old. "We have a very strong school and very good coaches," said the Russian teenager.

Novikova arrived here Tuesday night after a 24-hour trip from Moscow, which included a three-hour layover in New York.

She will be living in the Towers dormitory complex on campus, but the dorms are not yet open.

For now, she is living at the Cape Girardeau home of Dan McNair and his wife, Mary Lou. Dan McNair recently retired from the physical education department at Southeast.

"The people are so cheerful and friendly," said Novikova, sporting a ready smile. "Everything is new for me."

Even the tennis courts are different, she said. "We play on clay. Here, they are hard courts," she said.

Novikova is also having to adjust to the weather. Cape Girardeau is a more humid place than Moscow, said Novikova, who was out practicing on the tennis courts Thursday. "The weather is very difficult to breathe."

Attending college in the United States is important to Novikova. "First of all, because I want to improve my English."

Secondly, she said, she wants an American education.

Novikova said her parents also wanted her to enroll at an American school. "My parents wanted me to study in the United States very much." Novikova's mother works for a political magazine and her father is an economist in Russia.

Novikova said she plans to study business and economics at Southeast, subjects she feels will be important in her country, which has abandoned communism and is moving toward capitalism.

"Everything is changing," she said of Russia.

There are more goods and commodities now, but prices are high. "We have enough food to eat, but it's really very expensive.

"If you have money, you can buy everything," she pointed out.

But she added, the supply of merchandise is not nearly as plentiful as that in American stores.

Accompanied by the McNairs, she has already visited Wal-Mart and a number of the other large stores in Cape Girardeau. "We don't have such stores and shops yet," she noted.

Novikova said her country is going through some tough times, but she believes things will get better.

"We have a lot of dedicated people. I think we will have a better life in my country," she said.

Novikova praised former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev in helping to change the system of government.

"Gorbachev did a great job," she said. "It was he who opened Russia to all the world.

"Ten years ago, we didn't know anything about another world," she pointed out.

Asked how her countrymen feel now, Novikova said, "I can't say they are happy because it is very difficult now. But it is good we are going to another system and another life. The young people," she said, "want to live in capitalism."