Marat Safin
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SAP OPEN MEDIA CONFERENCE January 31, 2007
Marat Safin
MODERATOR: Thank you, everybody, for your patience here. Marat is a two-time Grand Slam champion, a former World No. 1, and most recently added to his resume a Davis Cup title in December. He's going to be making a San Jose debut in 10 days. So Marat, welcome. From myself and all the staff at the SAP Open, we want to welcome you to San Jose for the first time.
MARAT SAFIN: Thank you very much.
Q. You'll be playing here on Tuesday night, February 13, feature match at 7:30?
MARAT SAFIN: Yes.
Q. Obviously you made a big splash here in 2000 when you beat Steve. Are you surprised you haven't won more majors since then?
MARAT SAFIN: No, because I had my chances. I made the finals in Australian Open, and I won two times; and since then I been injured a couple years. Every year I finished the round. I got injured the next year.
So it's very difficult to make a come-back straightaway, win a Grand Slam. So if I wouldn't be so much time injured I would do much better.
But otherwise I'm satisfied because I could, a lot of people didn't win any.
Q. Where do you see your game right now?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, improving. And have very difficult, in the Australian Open I had my chance against (inaudible). But otherwise I'm playing very well and moving forward this season, and I think I'll have my chance to come back and I will definitely take them.
Q. Marat, why did you decide to play San Jose this year?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, kind of I want to change -- I wanted to change something because I've playing for the last few years in Europe.
And I decided why not try something in the states and a little bit earlier, just think of all the tours around the states, why not try it. I want to be doing something else rather than playing in Europe.
Q. Marat, after the Australian Open, the talk seems to be that there's Roger and then there's everybody else, that he's playing on a completely different level. I'm just wondering what your thoughts are about the way Federer is dominating the sport right now?
MARAT SAFIN: Obviously he's the best one on the tour. And he's going to be probably, if everything goes the same way he's going to be the best player of all times.
And nobody can stop him because nobody is as consistent as he is. And nobody is as talented as he is and the way he sees the game.
So, unfortunately, nobody can compete with him and be at the same level. And I don't see anybody to be there next to him. And even (inaudible), I don't think he'll be able to make, he will challenge Federer in the next year.
So I don't know, something has to happen to Roger for us to be somewhere near him.
Q. What do you think about Andy's game right now? You obviously had an exciting match against him, and he's going to be in San Jose next month as well?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, he improved a lot. He's been playing some aggressive tennis, and he's improved his volleys much better backhand. And this work he's done with Jimmy Connors has given him the strategies on the court, much more confident and of course his game has improved and he worked through a lot of stuff.
And I think he's much more a solid player as he used to be before.
Q. Where are you right now? Where are you calling from?
MARAT SAFIN: I'm in Moscow right now.
Q. Where are you?
MARAT SAFIN: Moscow.
Q. Obviously Hawkeye has played a real role with the electronic scoring. What are your thoughts on that? Do you see a change in the chair umpires? Are they doing their job? What are your thoughts on that?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's kind of, there's a lot of controversies with these things because some people like it and some people don't like it. And it gives us an advantage just in case. At an important point, you can (inaudible) the chair can decide the match.
And in this case I think the Hawkeye is the right thing to be there, even though some people don't like it.
But I think it's quite a good idea because it's difficult for the chair umpire to judge sometimes because the ball is flying so fast, he can't really see it and it's difficult for them to make a right decision.
Q. And also you've had a lot of times when you've been off the tour and had to sort of come back, and the whole tennis world saw what Serena did coming out of nowhere to win. What are your thoughts on her performance?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I think she did a good job, even though I didn't see one match of hers. But I think it was very incredible because she was ranked 81 in the world, and I know that Petrova almost beat her. And pretty impressive score on the finals against Sharapova. She might have been playing great tennis and I'm pretty happy for her because to come back and win the Grand Slam, it's really nearly impossible.
Q. Speaking of Davis Cup, you obviously just came off a big win there, kicking off again next week. When you look at the U.S. team on paper, it's quite powerful with Roddick and Blake and others and it's more than 10 years since we won the championship. Why do you think it's so hard for U.S. to win on clay overseas; it seems to be its weakness?
MARAT SAFIN: It's not your favorite turf. There's nothing wrong about it. The players who play on the hard courts, it's just the way it is. You don't have many clay courts in the states. That's why a lot of Germans are on the hard courts. That's why they keep playing on the hard courts until they become professionals, but from there to try to learn how to play on clay, it takes much longer time than to learn how to play from clay -- move from clay to the hard court.
Q. Even again on paper it's a very strong team, do you see them as the underdog going into the Czech Republic or do you see them as the favorite?
MARAT SAFIN: I think they're the favorite, but you can't underestimate the Czech, because they're a solid team. But I think on paper your team is looking better, but definitely has a lot of (inaudible) in the Czech Republic and they have pretty good doubles, as well as you. So every single match can decide the score in a tie.
So it's kind of very equal but on paper, of course, the states look better.
Q. Speaking of instant replay, I know they don't have any in San Jose, is it your feeling there's a growing comfort of players using the system. I talked to several players in Australia actually stop this point to middle because they were wanted to check the call whereas in the beginning I didn't see that very often?
MARAT SAFIN: I think it's okay. We have to get used to it, but I think it's a good idea, because I know people have been complaining before that one wrong call from the chair decided the match on the wrong side, want an opportunity to check it for themselves, I think it's a very good one.
Q. Do you think it's a growing comfort in using the system?
MARAT SAFIN: Yes.
Q. I've been wanting to have you here the past six or seven years, and when you come to San Jose, what do you think about the player field, Roddick and Blake and Murray and Fish and what's your call when you come to San Jose?
MARAT SAFIN: I think it's pretty good tournament for the past, I don't know how many years, but -- well, since I've been playing already they have always a good draw. I guess it was always telling and (inaudible) was going there a lot of times and Murray won a tournament. This year they have a pretty good tour. And I think it's going to be very interesting and I want to come there and try to win it.
I didn't win a tournament for a long time and I'm looking forward to do it there. Why not? It's going to be my first one in two years.
Q. Were you surprised that Andy didn't put up a better showing against Federer?
MARAT SAFIN: It's difficult for me to judge. But I was pretty sure that Federer was going to win. And it's sort of the way it is because Roger feels very comfortable against Roddick. And I was not surprised, but it was very easy. But the last few couple of matches it's been easy also.
So with all due respect to Andy, I think he's a great player. I think Roger, he's way too good for all of us.
Q. What does a loss like that do to a player's confidence?
MARAT SAFIN: Nothing, because you're not losing to somebody, some yo-yo guy; you're losing to number one, the one who won 10 Grand Slams and one of the best players in the history of tennis. So it's nothing to I think to worry about.
Q. On coaching, what's your view? Do you think coaching is overrated in tennis? Or is it really that important?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's important. Everybody takes it how you want. Some people they like to have somebody just to be comfortable and not to be lonely. Other people they need to work on some shots and some people they need to get the confidence somehow.
So everybody takes a different approach on those aspects. And, trust me, it's not really easy to travel alone around the world for 30 weeks a year. And you know it's nearly impossible. So you need to be with somebody. And need somebody to hang out because the tennis is a very personal thing, sport. So we need some support. We need some kind of good environment around you.
So I think you need to have somebody with you for, not full time, but somebody who knows about tennis.
Q. But in the case of like Connors and Roddick, can somebody really come in there and have that big an effect on their game?
MARAT SAFIN: Andy has improved a lot since he's been working with Jimmy. So I think in his case he played a very big role.
Q. Marat, could you describe your personality and your approach to tennis?
MARAT SAFIN: Again?
Q. Could you describe your personality and your approach to tennis?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I don't know. I have to live how I want to live. That's how I am and it doesn't matter if people don't like me, but it's how I see the world, how I am. I couldn't judge. I think it's more for the people and for the (inaudible) for them to judge how they see me. But the way I'm living, I'm pretty satisfied that's how I am. Or is it somebody likes it, it's good; somebody doesn't like me, I have nothing to worry about.
Q. I think you were quoted in Australia as saying that it's more important for you to be a normal person than to be number one. Is that true?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I want to live my life. It doesn't matter -- of course I want to be number one in the world. But I don't want to also, I want to live and enjoy my life.
So if it's fate, then it's fate. It was fate six years ago. So it's nothing wrong about it, living my own life, how I see it with being number one in the world and just some people -- there's a lot of different personalities in the world of tennis and the world of sports. So everybody sees it a different way.
And I see it this way and differently, of course, that I want to become number one in the world again. In my case I was already. So again I would like to do that.
Q. You've had more success against Pete Sampras than against Federer. Do you think Federer is better than Sampras and, if so, why?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, for the moment Pete has more Grand Slams than Federer. But Federer has the potential to become better than Sampras. So (inaudible).
Q. On your better days, do you have a chance to beat Federer?
MARAT SAFIN: I would love to think this way. But I think in this case it's very difficult. Very difficult. But why not? We all can dream and all the dreams are for free.
So hypothetically, yes. But theoretically, it's completely different.
Q. And do you live in Moscow or do you have homes elsewhere?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I travel around -- I come for a few days Moscow just now. And I've been in Spain and I came to Monaco. So I am with everybody everywhere and I don't really have a home.
Q. Do you like that style?
MARAT SAFIN: I enjoy it. I'm only going to be one 27.
safinator
Marat Safin
MODERATOR: Thank you, everybody, for your patience here. Marat is a two-time Grand Slam champion, a former World No. 1, and most recently added to his resume a Davis Cup title in December. He's going to be making a San Jose debut in 10 days. So Marat, welcome. From myself and all the staff at the SAP Open, we want to welcome you to San Jose for the first time.
MARAT SAFIN: Thank you very much.
Q. You'll be playing here on Tuesday night, February 13, feature match at 7:30?
MARAT SAFIN: Yes.
Q. Obviously you made a big splash here in 2000 when you beat Steve. Are you surprised you haven't won more majors since then?
MARAT SAFIN: No, because I had my chances. I made the finals in Australian Open, and I won two times; and since then I been injured a couple years. Every year I finished the round. I got injured the next year.
So it's very difficult to make a come-back straightaway, win a Grand Slam. So if I wouldn't be so much time injured I would do much better.
But otherwise I'm satisfied because I could, a lot of people didn't win any.
Q. Where do you see your game right now?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, improving. And have very difficult, in the Australian Open I had my chance against (inaudible). But otherwise I'm playing very well and moving forward this season, and I think I'll have my chance to come back and I will definitely take them.
Q. Marat, why did you decide to play San Jose this year?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, kind of I want to change -- I wanted to change something because I've playing for the last few years in Europe.
And I decided why not try something in the states and a little bit earlier, just think of all the tours around the states, why not try it. I want to be doing something else rather than playing in Europe.
Q. Marat, after the Australian Open, the talk seems to be that there's Roger and then there's everybody else, that he's playing on a completely different level. I'm just wondering what your thoughts are about the way Federer is dominating the sport right now?
MARAT SAFIN: Obviously he's the best one on the tour. And he's going to be probably, if everything goes the same way he's going to be the best player of all times.
And nobody can stop him because nobody is as consistent as he is. And nobody is as talented as he is and the way he sees the game.
So, unfortunately, nobody can compete with him and be at the same level. And I don't see anybody to be there next to him. And even (inaudible), I don't think he'll be able to make, he will challenge Federer in the next year.
So I don't know, something has to happen to Roger for us to be somewhere near him.
Q. What do you think about Andy's game right now? You obviously had an exciting match against him, and he's going to be in San Jose next month as well?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, he improved a lot. He's been playing some aggressive tennis, and he's improved his volleys much better backhand. And this work he's done with Jimmy Connors has given him the strategies on the court, much more confident and of course his game has improved and he worked through a lot of stuff.
And I think he's much more a solid player as he used to be before.
Q. Where are you right now? Where are you calling from?
MARAT SAFIN: I'm in Moscow right now.
Q. Where are you?
MARAT SAFIN: Moscow.
Q. Obviously Hawkeye has played a real role with the electronic scoring. What are your thoughts on that? Do you see a change in the chair umpires? Are they doing their job? What are your thoughts on that?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's kind of, there's a lot of controversies with these things because some people like it and some people don't like it. And it gives us an advantage just in case. At an important point, you can (inaudible) the chair can decide the match.
And in this case I think the Hawkeye is the right thing to be there, even though some people don't like it.
But I think it's quite a good idea because it's difficult for the chair umpire to judge sometimes because the ball is flying so fast, he can't really see it and it's difficult for them to make a right decision.
Q. And also you've had a lot of times when you've been off the tour and had to sort of come back, and the whole tennis world saw what Serena did coming out of nowhere to win. What are your thoughts on her performance?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I think she did a good job, even though I didn't see one match of hers. But I think it was very incredible because she was ranked 81 in the world, and I know that Petrova almost beat her. And pretty impressive score on the finals against Sharapova. She might have been playing great tennis and I'm pretty happy for her because to come back and win the Grand Slam, it's really nearly impossible.
Q. Speaking of Davis Cup, you obviously just came off a big win there, kicking off again next week. When you look at the U.S. team on paper, it's quite powerful with Roddick and Blake and others and it's more than 10 years since we won the championship. Why do you think it's so hard for U.S. to win on clay overseas; it seems to be its weakness?
MARAT SAFIN: It's not your favorite turf. There's nothing wrong about it. The players who play on the hard courts, it's just the way it is. You don't have many clay courts in the states. That's why a lot of Germans are on the hard courts. That's why they keep playing on the hard courts until they become professionals, but from there to try to learn how to play on clay, it takes much longer time than to learn how to play from clay -- move from clay to the hard court.
Q. Even again on paper it's a very strong team, do you see them as the underdog going into the Czech Republic or do you see them as the favorite?
MARAT SAFIN: I think they're the favorite, but you can't underestimate the Czech, because they're a solid team. But I think on paper your team is looking better, but definitely has a lot of (inaudible) in the Czech Republic and they have pretty good doubles, as well as you. So every single match can decide the score in a tie.
So it's kind of very equal but on paper, of course, the states look better.
Q. Speaking of instant replay, I know they don't have any in San Jose, is it your feeling there's a growing comfort of players using the system. I talked to several players in Australia actually stop this point to middle because they were wanted to check the call whereas in the beginning I didn't see that very often?
MARAT SAFIN: I think it's okay. We have to get used to it, but I think it's a good idea, because I know people have been complaining before that one wrong call from the chair decided the match on the wrong side, want an opportunity to check it for themselves, I think it's a very good one.
Q. Do you think it's a growing comfort in using the system?
MARAT SAFIN: Yes.
Q. I've been wanting to have you here the past six or seven years, and when you come to San Jose, what do you think about the player field, Roddick and Blake and Murray and Fish and what's your call when you come to San Jose?
MARAT SAFIN: I think it's pretty good tournament for the past, I don't know how many years, but -- well, since I've been playing already they have always a good draw. I guess it was always telling and (inaudible) was going there a lot of times and Murray won a tournament. This year they have a pretty good tour. And I think it's going to be very interesting and I want to come there and try to win it.
I didn't win a tournament for a long time and I'm looking forward to do it there. Why not? It's going to be my first one in two years.
Q. Were you surprised that Andy didn't put up a better showing against Federer?
MARAT SAFIN: It's difficult for me to judge. But I was pretty sure that Federer was going to win. And it's sort of the way it is because Roger feels very comfortable against Roddick. And I was not surprised, but it was very easy. But the last few couple of matches it's been easy also.
So with all due respect to Andy, I think he's a great player. I think Roger, he's way too good for all of us.
Q. What does a loss like that do to a player's confidence?
MARAT SAFIN: Nothing, because you're not losing to somebody, some yo-yo guy; you're losing to number one, the one who won 10 Grand Slams and one of the best players in the history of tennis. So it's nothing to I think to worry about.
Q. On coaching, what's your view? Do you think coaching is overrated in tennis? Or is it really that important?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's important. Everybody takes it how you want. Some people they like to have somebody just to be comfortable and not to be lonely. Other people they need to work on some shots and some people they need to get the confidence somehow.
So everybody takes a different approach on those aspects. And, trust me, it's not really easy to travel alone around the world for 30 weeks a year. And you know it's nearly impossible. So you need to be with somebody. And need somebody to hang out because the tennis is a very personal thing, sport. So we need some support. We need some kind of good environment around you.
So I think you need to have somebody with you for, not full time, but somebody who knows about tennis.
Q. But in the case of like Connors and Roddick, can somebody really come in there and have that big an effect on their game?
MARAT SAFIN: Andy has improved a lot since he's been working with Jimmy. So I think in his case he played a very big role.
Q. Marat, could you describe your personality and your approach to tennis?
MARAT SAFIN: Again?
Q. Could you describe your personality and your approach to tennis?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I don't know. I have to live how I want to live. That's how I am and it doesn't matter if people don't like me, but it's how I see the world, how I am. I couldn't judge. I think it's more for the people and for the (inaudible) for them to judge how they see me. But the way I'm living, I'm pretty satisfied that's how I am. Or is it somebody likes it, it's good; somebody doesn't like me, I have nothing to worry about.
Q. I think you were quoted in Australia as saying that it's more important for you to be a normal person than to be number one. Is that true?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I want to live my life. It doesn't matter -- of course I want to be number one in the world. But I don't want to also, I want to live and enjoy my life.
So if it's fate, then it's fate. It was fate six years ago. So it's nothing wrong about it, living my own life, how I see it with being number one in the world and just some people -- there's a lot of different personalities in the world of tennis and the world of sports. So everybody sees it a different way.
And I see it this way and differently, of course, that I want to become number one in the world again. In my case I was already. So again I would like to do that.
Q. You've had more success against Pete Sampras than against Federer. Do you think Federer is better than Sampras and, if so, why?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, for the moment Pete has more Grand Slams than Federer. But Federer has the potential to become better than Sampras. So (inaudible).
Q. On your better days, do you have a chance to beat Federer?
MARAT SAFIN: I would love to think this way. But I think in this case it's very difficult. Very difficult. But why not? We all can dream and all the dreams are for free.
So hypothetically, yes. But theoretically, it's completely different.
Q. And do you live in Moscow or do you have homes elsewhere?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I travel around -- I come for a few days Moscow just now. And I've been in Spain and I came to Monaco. So I am with everybody everywhere and I don't really have a home.
Q. Do you like that style?
MARAT SAFIN: I enjoy it. I'm only going to be one 27.
safinator
Roxxy 
Miss Dalloway
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He is seriously attractive,i love that sort of naughty/shy vibe he gives.In some pictures he reminds me on Heath Leadger just hotter.
.sweety_1100
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thanks roxxy those last picture are hot!! he looks good with longer hair
He looks a little scary in the last one though!
He looks a little scary in the last one though!
sweety_1100
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Just for you roxx - a whole week is way too long!!
theguyfromrussia.com
theguyfromrussia.com
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And a few more:
(His hot ex-girlfriend)
theguyfromrussia
theguyfromrussia
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Part One
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]..:: ARTICLES ::..[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
The Agony (and Fleeting Ecstasy) of Marat Safin
GQ Magazine
He has been called the purest physical talent in the history of the game. So why doesn't Marat Safin dominate the tennis world? John Jeremiah Sullivan explores the dark psyche of tennis's tormented genius.I've hated him, you know. I've hated that wack-job six-foot-four-inch beautiful genuis Tatar. Oh, never for long. Never with consistency that might have led to true renunciation. But there have been times when I wanted to see him... well, not suffer - because i know he suffers; he tells us so. It's one of this words - suffering: "I just suffer a bit more"; "I was suffering too much"; "That's why I am suffering"; "Why should I suffer?" Not that, then, but to see him humbled. Yes - scolded, even. I'm watching at home, let's say, and he's just netted a midcourt forehand approach ahot for the twelfth time in the set, having gotten all freaked out about some completely inconsequential baseline error six games earlier, and maybe he's talking to himself, but loud enough for the mikes to pick up, saying things like "Why you fecking run? Why not you make heem fecking run?" when from nowhere comes a tiny, creaking voice. The crowd goes still. A filthy crone, a babushka, has materialized in the service box, and she's waving a bony finger at him. "You," she hisses, "you were born the greatest of them all, and look at you, muttering to yourself like a ??????. (russian word, sorry I don't have crylics to type it out) You betray your gift, Marat Mikhailovich, and now you will know what it means to suffer."
Safin could answer - has pretty much answered, in fact, when a statement along those lines has been put to him by some reporter - that he's done so much, that in eight years he's been a professional tennis player, he's won two Grand Slams and made the finals of two other, has won thirteen other ATP tournaments, has twice (briefly) been number one in the world, and has with some consistency stayed among the top ten; that he's played in not a few truly classic matches, has overcome injuries, and has futhermore been a boon to the sport insofar as his personality, his looks, and his behavior on and off the court have given us something to talk about, to get worked up about. He could retire, as he more than threatened to do (the first time, reportedly, when he was 20), could install himself in a dacha somewhere with "a kid in one hand and a Tsingtao in the other" (as he once described his ideal future during a press conference in China), could leave behind forever the game that has been his love and tormentor since childhood, the game that may have saved him - as he mused at this year's French Open - from a life spent "picking up bottles in a park in Moscow," and no one would have grounds on which to fault him. We would do right to thank him, in fact we would follow the game.
But I've never been able to bring myself to feel this way. It's partly because of a mystifying pattern that has marked Safin's career from the start, of doing something magnificent, and then immediantely falling apart for a period of months, if not years. Each of what once could call the three watershed moments of his career - his "Who the hell is that kid?" win over Andre Agassi in the first round of the 1998 French Open, which introduced him to the tennis-watching world; his victory in the 2000 US Open final over Pete Sampras, when he played such frighteningly perfect tennis that some people, including his former coach the Swedish champion Mats Wilander, think it might have permanently messed with his head; and his semifinal, then final, wins in this year's Australian Open (against Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt, respectively), matches in which the level of play was accurately described by ESPN commentator Cliff Drysdale as "inhuman" - each of these has been followed hard upon by a period of decline, or atleast once in which the virtuosity he's able to summon goes missing.
It's partly that, yes, but it's also - more so - that when he is one, he's a god. The beauty of Safin's tennis is the beauty of overwhelming power and precision, less clever than crushing. He's not a scrapper; you won't see him pull off too many magical saves; he doesn't adapt too well, midmatch, doesn't beat players at their own games - what he does do, can do, instead, is render his opponents' games irrelevant.
But I've never been able to bring myself to feel this way. It's partly because of a mystifying pattern that has marked Safin's career from the start, of doing something magnificent, and then immediantely falling apart for a period of months, if not years. Each of what once could call the three watershed moments of his career - his "Who the hell is that kid?" win over Andre Agassi in the first round of the 1998 French Open, which introduced him to the tennis-watching world; his victory in the 2000 US Open final over Pete Sampras, when he played such frighteningly perfect tennis that some people, including his former coach the Swedish champion Mats Wilander, think it might have permanently messed with his head; and his semifinal, then final, wins in this year's Australian Open (against Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt, respectively), matches in which the level of play was accurately described by ESPN commentator Cliff Drysdale as "inhuman" - each of these has been followed hard upon by a period of decline, or atleast once in which the virtuosity he's able to summon goes missing.
It's partly that, yes, but it's also - more so - that when he is one, he's a god. The beauty of Safin's tennis is the beauty of overwhelming power and precision, less clever than crushing. He's not a scrapper; you won't see him pull off too many magical saves; he doesn't adapt too well, midmatch, doesn't beat players at their own games - what he does do, can do, instead, is render his opponents' games irrelevant.
There's a certain one-two move that, when Safin's demons have temporarily left him alone, he likes to execute. It begins with a two-fisted backhand approach shot from the ad-court corner, just inside the baseline. He'll move up on the ball and sort of hop on his right leg, as if he's stubbed his toe, teetering as he tears the shot crosscourt. The landing from the little jump becomes itself the beginning of his sprint toward the net, during which his movement is strangely flowing and catlike for an athlete of his size. He's carrying so much mass and inertia forward that you think he's going to run right through the net, but then he pounds to a stop at the last second and performs the daintiest little touch-drop volley.
The effect of this maneuver, visually speaking, is a bit like seeing a pterodactyl that was flying straight at you suddenly shape-shift into a moth and flutter away.
It's this, and a dozen other little things like it, that can make you clutch your head over Safin when he's in one of his lost periods, inexplicably bowing out before guys who shouldn't be able to stay on court with him. But of course, those very qualities that make his game so dangerous are the ones that make it so fagile, or unusually vulnerable to psychological swings, because in order to play the kind of tennis that Safin correctly considers "his game," one has to, as they say, "dictate play" relentlessly, and in order to do that - against the best players in the world - one has to believe it's possible. The question, then, of why Safin can never maintain this belief for long is one that haunts all Safinites(sic).
The effect of this maneuver, visually speaking, is a bit like seeing a pterodactyl that was flying straight at you suddenly shape-shift into a moth and flutter away.
It's this, and a dozen other little things like it, that can make you clutch your head over Safin when he's in one of his lost periods, inexplicably bowing out before guys who shouldn't be able to stay on court with him. But of course, those very qualities that make his game so dangerous are the ones that make it so fagile, or unusually vulnerable to psychological swings, because in order to play the kind of tennis that Safin correctly considers "his game," one has to, as they say, "dictate play" relentlessly, and in order to do that - against the best players in the world - one has to believe it's possible. The question, then, of why Safin can never maintain this belief for long is one that haunts all Safinites(sic).
I think it was partly in anger, craving answers, that I went to meet him at the Hamburg clay-court event in May. Since the glory of the Australian Open, there had been Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome, in none of which he made it past the third round. His own manager has expressed bafflement in the face of this latest collapse. His current coach, Peter Lundgren, when I'd asked how winning a Grand Slam could make a man lose his confidence (a cause-and-effect process that Safin described as "inevitable"), said simply, "It's amazing." But if i could get the ****er alone for a few minutes, force him to explain...
***
It's sunny out, and we're in the back of an expensive little black car, creeping through lunchtime traffic in spotless Hamburg. Safin is slouching, face to the window. A guy from ATP Europe is chatting in Spanish on his BlackBerry in the front. I confess I'd hoped for a more intimate setting - perhaps a small beige room with a card table and an ashtray and a single lightbulb overhead - but this'll suffice.
I open rather innocuosly. Who did he draw for the first round tomorrow?
"Martin."
He means Alberto Martin, a Spanish clay-court specialist who made the quarerfinals in Rome a week ago.
"I don't know much about his game," I say.
"Don't need to know," Safin mutters. "He's Spanish. That is all you need to know."
It's hard to tell whether he says this with contempt or kind respect. Whatever the case, it's not a subject I want to pursue, as it will only distract from the task of steering Safin into an arena of trust where I might use journalistic tricknology to get him to tell me what his problem is, the secret of his not-enough-success.
He makes some general complaints about the tour. "The people who run the sport," he says, "they're not really thinking about the players.... Eleven months of a season - no other sport has that."
I point out that horse racing has it, thinking in this way to make clear my sympathy (pro tennis players are treated like beasts).
"That is a hobby, not a sport," he says.
I take advantage of the ensuing awkward pause and test-drive the one theory that's always made the nearest semblance of sense to me, in trying to account for the Safin phenomenon, namely, perfectionism. He's said a few times that he sees himself as a perfectionist. Of course, he says so many things, but this one matches what you can see in his game, the way a single ugly shot can derail him from what looks like a certain win, the way an error on his part always seems to bother him twice as much as a great shot from his opponent, the way he almost never seems happy on court.
It's my feeling that Safin's relationship to the game is fundamentally aesthetic. He may occasionally bandy about that tiresome tennis shibboleth "result," which gets used about 1,500 times per press conference (as in "I made a good result," "The important thing is to get a result," etc.), but I don't think he really cares so much about winning qua winning. Oh, I mean, he cares passionately about it, of course, but there's another, deeper level at which what he cares about most is playing beautiful tennis, which means, for Safin, playing perfectly. That he has occasionally achieved this is sort of cruel, when you think about it. It's like Wilander said, when I asked him about his idea that the US Open final against Sampras in 2000 had, for a time, hurt Safin: "It turned out to be the worse thing.... Every time he stepped on a court, he expected to play that way."
That way... Safin was 20 years old, almost coltish. He won in straight sets - a startling enough statistic on its own - against a man who hadn't lost a Grand Slam final in five years (and who'd been in plenty of them); but it was the seeming nonchalance with which he did it that caused mouths to hang open. He was bending in passing shots like he'd found a way to mess with the laws of physics, dropping in thousand-pound aces, then moving right along as if they were practice balls. Dick Enberg, doing commentary, burst out at one point, "The game isn't that easy! It cannot be that easy!" After the match, Sampras called him "the future of the game," and that was the word on Safin for a time, till suddenly it wasn't. Not that he ever really faded, as a threat - but he wasn't supposed to have been a threat. He was suppose to have been a dominator. That was the script.
There's something he said during the trophy ceremony after that Sampras match, something i didn't notice at the time but that sticks out now. They were trying to get his take on the match, and he said he couldn't really remember the match, that he remembered only the very last game, when he'd had to serve it out. And here is the curious thing: That's the only game in which Safin played less than perfectly. Sampras even had a break point on him in that game. It was like the whole rest of the match - the astonishing, gorgeous part - hadn't even existed.
Well that's precisely how true perfectionism works. Contrary to what the rest of us may assume, your clinical, bona fide perfectionist doesn't especailly give a crap about the perfection itself. That's just the way it's suppose to go. Nothing to get all gleeful about. The screwups, the moments - the countless moments - when the performance is out of phase with the natural order: Those you notice, those you can get emotional about. And this, I really do think, is the reason that although Safin's reactions to his mistakes are perhaps unprecedented in their fury (and I'm not forgetting McEnroe here, but McEnroe was bratty, and Marat Safin, when he's shrieking or breaking rackets or destrying near-court objects, is sort of scary), his deportment in victory tends to be conspicuously muted and unimpressive.
You could see this on display after the most recent Australian Open final, against Hewitt. Safin had so many reasons just to go completely ape-sh*t after that match, to sob, to drop his shorts (like he did in last year's French Open), to throw a ball girl into the stands, whatever he wanted. In addition to not having won a Grand Slam final since his first, in 2000, he'd lost in the final of this particular event twice in the preceeding three years. Just to reach Hewitt, he'd had to get past Federer, the current messiah of tennis. That had been a match for the ages - "the match of the year," as they're still saying on TV - an ungodly tense four-and-a-half-hour five-setter that saw match points for both players before the final game but that ended with Federer literally on his hands and knees, crawling toward the net in disbelief. And now here he was, having won the one-hundredth Australian Open against yet another favored opponent, having silenced armies of critics (they'd called him "the one-Slam wonder"), and I might mention that he'd just turned 25. And you know what he did? He gave the weakest little fist pump. I don't really know how to describe the gesture. It was like, "Cool, that went well." Sure you might say, maybe he doesn't like to show his emotions so much. To which one might reply, Have you ever watched a Marat Safin match?
Back in the car, Safin wasn't having any of that. He's over his perfectionism, you see. "You start to realize," he said, "that apart from perfection, if you want to win, you have to be satisfied with the win. You don't have to play. And the luck..."
Luck? What good were my pitiful moves against such fathoms of tragic denial?
I open rather innocuosly. Who did he draw for the first round tomorrow?
"Martin."
He means Alberto Martin, a Spanish clay-court specialist who made the quarerfinals in Rome a week ago.
"I don't know much about his game," I say.
"Don't need to know," Safin mutters. "He's Spanish. That is all you need to know."
It's hard to tell whether he says this with contempt or kind respect. Whatever the case, it's not a subject I want to pursue, as it will only distract from the task of steering Safin into an arena of trust where I might use journalistic tricknology to get him to tell me what his problem is, the secret of his not-enough-success.
He makes some general complaints about the tour. "The people who run the sport," he says, "they're not really thinking about the players.... Eleven months of a season - no other sport has that."
I point out that horse racing has it, thinking in this way to make clear my sympathy (pro tennis players are treated like beasts).
"That is a hobby, not a sport," he says.
I take advantage of the ensuing awkward pause and test-drive the one theory that's always made the nearest semblance of sense to me, in trying to account for the Safin phenomenon, namely, perfectionism. He's said a few times that he sees himself as a perfectionist. Of course, he says so many things, but this one matches what you can see in his game, the way a single ugly shot can derail him from what looks like a certain win, the way an error on his part always seems to bother him twice as much as a great shot from his opponent, the way he almost never seems happy on court.
It's my feeling that Safin's relationship to the game is fundamentally aesthetic. He may occasionally bandy about that tiresome tennis shibboleth "result," which gets used about 1,500 times per press conference (as in "I made a good result," "The important thing is to get a result," etc.), but I don't think he really cares so much about winning qua winning. Oh, I mean, he cares passionately about it, of course, but there's another, deeper level at which what he cares about most is playing beautiful tennis, which means, for Safin, playing perfectly. That he has occasionally achieved this is sort of cruel, when you think about it. It's like Wilander said, when I asked him about his idea that the US Open final against Sampras in 2000 had, for a time, hurt Safin: "It turned out to be the worse thing.... Every time he stepped on a court, he expected to play that way."
That way... Safin was 20 years old, almost coltish. He won in straight sets - a startling enough statistic on its own - against a man who hadn't lost a Grand Slam final in five years (and who'd been in plenty of them); but it was the seeming nonchalance with which he did it that caused mouths to hang open. He was bending in passing shots like he'd found a way to mess with the laws of physics, dropping in thousand-pound aces, then moving right along as if they were practice balls. Dick Enberg, doing commentary, burst out at one point, "The game isn't that easy! It cannot be that easy!" After the match, Sampras called him "the future of the game," and that was the word on Safin for a time, till suddenly it wasn't. Not that he ever really faded, as a threat - but he wasn't supposed to have been a threat. He was suppose to have been a dominator. That was the script.
There's something he said during the trophy ceremony after that Sampras match, something i didn't notice at the time but that sticks out now. They were trying to get his take on the match, and he said he couldn't really remember the match, that he remembered only the very last game, when he'd had to serve it out. And here is the curious thing: That's the only game in which Safin played less than perfectly. Sampras even had a break point on him in that game. It was like the whole rest of the match - the astonishing, gorgeous part - hadn't even existed.
Well that's precisely how true perfectionism works. Contrary to what the rest of us may assume, your clinical, bona fide perfectionist doesn't especailly give a crap about the perfection itself. That's just the way it's suppose to go. Nothing to get all gleeful about. The screwups, the moments - the countless moments - when the performance is out of phase with the natural order: Those you notice, those you can get emotional about. And this, I really do think, is the reason that although Safin's reactions to his mistakes are perhaps unprecedented in their fury (and I'm not forgetting McEnroe here, but McEnroe was bratty, and Marat Safin, when he's shrieking or breaking rackets or destrying near-court objects, is sort of scary), his deportment in victory tends to be conspicuously muted and unimpressive.
You could see this on display after the most recent Australian Open final, against Hewitt. Safin had so many reasons just to go completely ape-sh*t after that match, to sob, to drop his shorts (like he did in last year's French Open), to throw a ball girl into the stands, whatever he wanted. In addition to not having won a Grand Slam final since his first, in 2000, he'd lost in the final of this particular event twice in the preceeding three years. Just to reach Hewitt, he'd had to get past Federer, the current messiah of tennis. That had been a match for the ages - "the match of the year," as they're still saying on TV - an ungodly tense four-and-a-half-hour five-setter that saw match points for both players before the final game but that ended with Federer literally on his hands and knees, crawling toward the net in disbelief. And now here he was, having won the one-hundredth Australian Open against yet another favored opponent, having silenced armies of critics (they'd called him "the one-Slam wonder"), and I might mention that he'd just turned 25. And you know what he did? He gave the weakest little fist pump. I don't really know how to describe the gesture. It was like, "Cool, that went well." Sure you might say, maybe he doesn't like to show his emotions so much. To which one might reply, Have you ever watched a Marat Safin match?
Back in the car, Safin wasn't having any of that. He's over his perfectionism, you see. "You start to realize," he said, "that apart from perfection, if you want to win, you have to be satisfied with the win. You don't have to play. And the luck..."
Luck? What good were my pitiful moves against such fathoms of tragic denial?
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Part Two
He was born in Moscow in the winter of 1980, the closest thing you could be to a tennis blue blood in Soviet Russia. His father is the director of an important athletic club, and his mother, Rausa, once a world-class player in her own right, has been a coach there for many years - in fact, the majority of the top Russian female players have been her charges at one point or another, including Safin's six-foot younger sister, Dinara, who at the moment is posed to break into the top twenty. People say Safin's mother used to park his pram by the side of the court during lessons, and it's safe to say that from the first time he held a racket, doing well was about something more than fun. It was, among other things, a way of attaining "a better life."
Through friends of friends, Safin's family found him a sponsor, and at the age of 14 he was sent to Valencia, Spain, where he did most of his serious training. His sister says that at first the situation was "very difficult for him... He didn't know Spanish. He was coming home once in three months." And he carries in his personality the marks common to those who are hurled into adult existence - a wariness that is eager to turn to warmth, and does so the minute he senses whoever he's talking to is okay, is for real.
And there's another side to Safin one is tempted to trace to his having been kicked out of the boat and told to swim at a young age - his fully formed character. The adjective mature might not leap to mind in reference to a player who once called attention to the beauty of the three barely clad blonde women seated in his player's box, but it's nonetheless true that Safin emphatically does not give off that quality of emotional and itellectual stuntedness one so often notices in professional athletes. He's odd; he has his own thoughts about things. This is a truth you're more likely to pick up from reading interviews with him that have been conducted in Russian or Spanish, rather than English, which he speaks quite well but with a kind of false fluency that doesn't allow him to venture very far from a store of quips and platitudes. If you read his Russian interviews, you'll find exchanges like this one:
Q: Besides the coach and the masseur, are there other people accompanying you at the tournament?
A: For what? To entertain? I don't like clowns, I find them repugnant.
Or this, one of my favorites:
Q: It's well-known that at 14 you joined the tennis school in Valencia, but it gets somehow forgotten that before that you applied to the Bollettieri academy in the States two years earlier.
A: That trip ended in nothing. They refused me, saying they didn't see potential. Like, nothing can be done out of me.
Q: Did yours and Bollettieri's paths cross later?
A: Yeah, a few years back we met and he offered his excuses for his mistake.
Q: Was it pleasant to gloat?
A: On whom? Bollettieri knows nothing about tennis. When I was 12, I was hurting, but I soon understood what kind of man he is.
Maybe I'm not being fair to the other players here - Andy Roddick, for instance has a fine wit when he wants - but somehow it's hard to imagine Roddick saying, "I soon understood what kind of man he is" in any language. Wilander said, "He has a lot going on upstairs. Too much, I think. Life is not as simple for Marat Safin as it is for a lot of other players."
***
At the photo shoot, the makeup woman appears in the doorway, a few paces behind Safin, and says, "I guess we're done... He just walked away."
It's surprising to see what a competent model he is. He's following the photographer's orders and seems, in general, much less grumpy. He's even telling bad jokes to the little crowd: "What is the blond girl with the black hair?" (ie with a dye job) "Artificial intelligence."
It's harder to say anything about Safin and not, sooner or later, address the matter of his physical beauty. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm as straight as some sort of atomically precise geometer's tool, but when Safin pulls off his shirt, you're thrown for a second by what a specimen he is. Sometimes the genome just lines up, you know? It's like Jim Courier said: "That's the body. If you could pick one, if you could design one..." And it'd be foolish to pretend that this hasn't played a part in Safin's career, that it isn't one of the reasons he stayed at the forefront, mediawise, during those dismal years - one of the reasons everyone involved with the sport wishes he'd win more consistently. It's an uneasy time for the ATP right now. America is still the biggest tennis market, but Americans tend to care exclusively about homegrown players, and on the men's side especially, the bench is pretty shallow. (In terms of title contenders, there's Roddick and... Roddick.) The industry would like nothing more than to find a foreign player so talented, so good-looking, and so charming that they'd tune in to watch him in Ohio. Safin could be the male Sharapova, except... not quite. As a not-not-not-for-attribution source in the industry told me, "There's a summer publicity tour this year, with Rafael Nadal and Federer, in conjuncttion with the US hard-court season. You can believe they'd love to use Safin like that. But it's fifty-fifty wheter he'd change his mind and back out.
Safin notices the butts of some hand rolled cigarettes in an ashtray. He picks one up and sniffs it. "Somebody smoking joints?" he says.
Everyone laughs.
"Do you like it?" (This seems to be the Russo-English version of "Good sh*t?")
The photographer asks him about the tattoo on his right arm: "What does it mean?"
"Live fast, die young," Safin says.
In the limo again, on the way back to the hotel, this seems like the natural place to resume. "So your tattoo means 'Live fast, die young'?" I say.
"Actually, no, it is symbol of the monkey," he says. "But I like that the people always go, 'Wow, really?'"
***
He was born in Moscow in the winter of 1980, the closest thing you could be to a tennis blue blood in Soviet Russia. His father is the director of an important athletic club, and his mother, Rausa, once a world-class player in her own right, has been a coach there for many years - in fact, the majority of the top Russian female players have been her charges at one point or another, including Safin's six-foot younger sister, Dinara, who at the moment is posed to break into the top twenty. People say Safin's mother used to park his pram by the side of the court during lessons, and it's safe to say that from the first time he held a racket, doing well was about something more than fun. It was, among other things, a way of attaining "a better life."
Through friends of friends, Safin's family found him a sponsor, and at the age of 14 he was sent to Valencia, Spain, where he did most of his serious training. His sister says that at first the situation was "very difficult for him... He didn't know Spanish. He was coming home once in three months." And he carries in his personality the marks common to those who are hurled into adult existence - a wariness that is eager to turn to warmth, and does so the minute he senses whoever he's talking to is okay, is for real.
And there's another side to Safin one is tempted to trace to his having been kicked out of the boat and told to swim at a young age - his fully formed character. The adjective mature might not leap to mind in reference to a player who once called attention to the beauty of the three barely clad blonde women seated in his player's box, but it's nonetheless true that Safin emphatically does not give off that quality of emotional and itellectual stuntedness one so often notices in professional athletes. He's odd; he has his own thoughts about things. This is a truth you're more likely to pick up from reading interviews with him that have been conducted in Russian or Spanish, rather than English, which he speaks quite well but with a kind of false fluency that doesn't allow him to venture very far from a store of quips and platitudes. If you read his Russian interviews, you'll find exchanges like this one:
Q: Besides the coach and the masseur, are there other people accompanying you at the tournament?
A: For what? To entertain? I don't like clowns, I find them repugnant.
Or this, one of my favorites:
Q: It's well-known that at 14 you joined the tennis school in Valencia, but it gets somehow forgotten that before that you applied to the Bollettieri academy in the States two years earlier.
A: That trip ended in nothing. They refused me, saying they didn't see potential. Like, nothing can be done out of me.
Q: Did yours and Bollettieri's paths cross later?
A: Yeah, a few years back we met and he offered his excuses for his mistake.
Q: Was it pleasant to gloat?
A: On whom? Bollettieri knows nothing about tennis. When I was 12, I was hurting, but I soon understood what kind of man he is.
Maybe I'm not being fair to the other players here - Andy Roddick, for instance has a fine wit when he wants - but somehow it's hard to imagine Roddick saying, "I soon understood what kind of man he is" in any language. Wilander said, "He has a lot going on upstairs. Too much, I think. Life is not as simple for Marat Safin as it is for a lot of other players."
***
At the photo shoot, the makeup woman appears in the doorway, a few paces behind Safin, and says, "I guess we're done... He just walked away."
It's surprising to see what a competent model he is. He's following the photographer's orders and seems, in general, much less grumpy. He's even telling bad jokes to the little crowd: "What is the blond girl with the black hair?" (ie with a dye job) "Artificial intelligence."
It's harder to say anything about Safin and not, sooner or later, address the matter of his physical beauty. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm as straight as some sort of atomically precise geometer's tool, but when Safin pulls off his shirt, you're thrown for a second by what a specimen he is. Sometimes the genome just lines up, you know? It's like Jim Courier said: "That's the body. If you could pick one, if you could design one..." And it'd be foolish to pretend that this hasn't played a part in Safin's career, that it isn't one of the reasons he stayed at the forefront, mediawise, during those dismal years - one of the reasons everyone involved with the sport wishes he'd win more consistently. It's an uneasy time for the ATP right now. America is still the biggest tennis market, but Americans tend to care exclusively about homegrown players, and on the men's side especially, the bench is pretty shallow. (In terms of title contenders, there's Roddick and... Roddick.) The industry would like nothing more than to find a foreign player so talented, so good-looking, and so charming that they'd tune in to watch him in Ohio. Safin could be the male Sharapova, except... not quite. As a not-not-not-for-attribution source in the industry told me, "There's a summer publicity tour this year, with Rafael Nadal and Federer, in conjuncttion with the US hard-court season. You can believe they'd love to use Safin like that. But it's fifty-fifty wheter he'd change his mind and back out.
Safin notices the butts of some hand rolled cigarettes in an ashtray. He picks one up and sniffs it. "Somebody smoking joints?" he says.
Everyone laughs.
"Do you like it?" (This seems to be the Russo-English version of "Good sh*t?")
The photographer asks him about the tattoo on his right arm: "What does it mean?"
"Live fast, die young," Safin says.
In the limo again, on the way back to the hotel, this seems like the natural place to resume. "So your tattoo means 'Live fast, die young'?" I say.
"Actually, no, it is symbol of the monkey," he says. "But I like that the people always go, 'Wow, really?'"
***
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