Roland Garros '08

Lena

Glorious, grotesque? Which Marat Safin will it be?

Neil Harman, Tennis Correspondent, Paris

The Russian believes that he can get back to his best and win a major title; he says Andy Murray still has much to prove

Marat Safin does not watch tennis and he would not study a video of himself, he finds the whole thing rather tiresome, but the last person bar the present top three to win a grand-slam tournament is certain of his ability to have a final, beguiling tilt at a major championship. Why not here?

A chat with Safin on the eve of the French Open is illuminating and discouraging, as is the manner in which the conversation embraces his twin emotions - freedom and boredom. That you can never be sure which Safin you will meet is what makes the 28-year-old an iconoclast, although suggest that to him and he chuckles dismissively. “You journalists are funny, always talking such bulls***.” (hihihi - nice Mr. Green

)

It is eight years since Safin became world No1, the same year he destroyed Pete Sampras in the US Open final, and was there a more supremely unfettered fortnight than the Australian Open in 2005, which concluded with his dismantling of Lleyton Hewitt's chances of winning his home championship, from which he has never recovered? When Safin ambles on court, a thrill descends, for the outcome can be glorious or grotesque.

“I have an interesting, comfortable life,” he said. “I have everything I need. I play because I still think I can beat these guys and I would like to make it to the top ten again [he is No72], but it is not easy.
My tennis carries a lot of risk, I play fast and if I'm not 100 per cent, it is tough. I have to be one second out and I have no rhythm. That's why it sometimes goes in and sometimes it doesn't. That's why I am dangerous. I believe I have a grand slam in me, maybe this year, maybe Roland Garros. So much depends on the draw, if I don't get Federer, Nadal or Djokovic early, things can work for me.”

Ask Safin about the state of men's tennis and he shrugs. Who excites him? “Nobody.” What about Nikolay Davydenko, his fellow Russian, who remains at the centre of inquiries over a match that raised suspicious betting patterns? “It's his life, his brain, I don't want to be in his shoes. I don't owe anything to anybody. Nobody bends me, no one can influence me. I have freedom and not everyone has that.”

What about those who govern the sport, the ATP? “There is this council, that council and basically all the big decisions have nothing to do with the players. It's the same bull****. Someone represents the players then gets $5,000 [£2,500] more and moves over to the tournament side. I don't care, whatever happens, happens.”

And what about Andy Murray? “People get p***ed with me in the locker-room when I say what I think. He's won a couple of tournaments and that's cool, but let's see what happens at a grand slam when everyone is pumped and ready to win it.
I see him around. We don't talk much. He is very talented but it is in places like these that you show your real skills, this is where the level of your ranking is determined and the rest of the world sees if you have it in you to be the No1 in the world or not.”

Safin had it in him once and if he could find that perfect freedom on the court, there are few players in the world who could hold a candle to him. Even Roger Federer. Once more, Marat, light the flame once more.

Kati

No Stary, a ja tam nie powiem, żebyś mi światełko w tunelu zapalił, tylko żebyś jakąś supernową eksplodował... DAWAJ!

Kurcze, jak ja lubię wywiady z Maratem... Tą jego nonszalancję i cięty ozór... Smile

s.

marat mistrz ciętej riposty Wink

no chlopie.powiedziales A teraz powiedz B bo innaczej marny twoj los jak sie tam cala ekipa z Polski do ciebie wpakuje;D

Lena

Safin has no plans to quit

PARIS (AP) -Marat Safin is chasing his past glory.

The two-time Grand Slam champion, a former No. 1 player now ranked 73rd, advanced to the second round of the French Open on Wednesday by beating Jean-Rene Lisnard of Monaco 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 in a match that took two days to complete.

"Now I'm pretty solid, confident, and looking forward. Now I can compete against the big players,'' said Safin, who won the U.S. Open in 2000 and the Australian Open in 2005.

On Tuesday, Lisnard was leading 2-1 in the third set when play was suspended because of rain.

"It was raining, courts were heavy,'' Safin said. "And there was too much wind. Way too much to play the normal tennis. You could save some balls and try to be solid, but a lot of bad bounces. The way I played under such conditions was not bad.''

When play resumed Wednesday, the sunny conditions were more to Safin's style - and his opponent noticed.

"Today we rediscovered the great Safin,'' the 228th-ranked Lisnard said. " He found the lines. I couldn't solve him.''

That's certainly true: Lisnard won only three of 14 games Wednesday.

"Today it was sunnier,'' Lisnard said, "so of course he feasted on it. He had a strong serve and played fast.''

Safin finished with 15 aces. In the next round, he'll face Davis Cup teammate Nikolay Davydenko, who is seeded fourth and reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last year.

"He's playing his best tennis probably right now,'' Safin said of Davydenko. "He won Miami. He beat (Rafael) Nadal and some other great players.

"I have to be aggressive, that's for sure,'' Safin added. "I just need to be the one who is dictating the points even though I will be missing a lot and going for it. But this is my tennis.''

The 28-year-old Safin makes it sound like he'll be around for a while, despite comments from his sister, Dinara Safina, who said her brother has talked about pondering retirement.

"She's not right. I'm still playing, still enjoying, even though I'm in a tough position,'' said Safin, who reached the French Open semifinals in 2002. "Couple months ago I was almost out of the top 100. I'm still playing, still trying. ... I don't think I will be retiring pretty soon.''

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Noż normalnie chłop gada aż sie go miło słucha (czyta) Very Happy

Lena

One-on-one with Marat Safin
Thursday, May 29, 2008
By Eric Frosio

The sublimely talented Marat Safin is primed to regain his place among the world’s elite if new coach Hernan Gumy is to be believed. At 28, the Russian former world No1 has not won a tournament since he triumphed in the 2005 Aussie Open…

Fighting his way back to the summit of world tennis is no doubt proving a similar task to the one he faced in December 2007 when he attempted – unsuccessfully – to scale a Himalayan peak.

The tennis landscape has changed considerably since January 2005 when Marat famously outlasted Roger Federer (9-7 in the fifth set) in the semi-final at Melbourne and then thumped Lleyton Hewitt in the final.

Broken rackets and spirit

Injuries and a certain lack of motivation have plagued the big man for the past three years. His comeback following a knee operation – which kept him sidelined between August 2005 and February 2006 – was a period of self doubt when Marat earned a reputation for smashing rackets as one winless week ran into the next.

“I hit rock bottom,” he admits. Dumped out of tournament after tournament Marat was producing little to remind tennis fans of better days. He needed help to get his game back on track, and it came in the form of Hernan Gumy, ranked No39 in the world in 1996 and former coach of Guillermo Coria and Gustavo Kuerten. Gumy teamed up with Marat in August 2007.

Gumy to the rescue

“His manager spoke to me about teaming up during Wimbledon” Gumy explains. “Then we started working together in LA in the run up to the US Open. And because things are going well we’re still together. To start with I found Marat in bad mental shape. He wasn’t playing well and he was overweight. Everybody was telling him it was a confidence problem but I looked beyond that. I studied videos and compared matches he played in 2000 with matches he played in 2007. I noticed that he was positioning himself differently when he hit the ball. He’d started putting his left leg more forward to protect his injured knee (he mimes a backhand). I noticed that he was doing the same for the forehand.”

“These are the small details that ended up ruining his game,” Gumy continues. “When I showed him the montage that I’d compiled, he was like ‘Wow! That’s incredible!’ In fact, I took a different approach, based more on technique than psychology.”

Still there!

But to develop this approach, Safin needed to improve his physical condition. He had to start again for the beginning, working out three times a day to get himself back into shape.

“It was difficult but he was ready to put in the work, to take up the challenge. Contrary to what people say, Marat isn’t lazy,” declares Gumy. “He’s very motivated. We’ve worked hard and he’s in good condition again. It wasn’t always easy and he exploded lots of times, threw his racquet and shouted at everyone. When that happened, I just left him alone to get it out of his system and afterwards we got back to work. Marat’s like that. He’ll never change. That’s just who he is.”

More independent than before and with a new technique, Safin is back to his old self. A few good wins over Berdych in the Davis Cup and Ferrero in Valencia and have chased all thoughts of retirement from his mind. “I still enjoy playing. My tennis is getting better now. Why would I stop when everything is starting to come together again? I’m not going to retire anytime soon. I’m still here!” he declared after his rain-delayed victory over Jean-René Lisnard.

Thanks Gumy

Whatever the result of his second round match against Nikolay Davydenko, which Safin expects to be “an exciting Russian derby", Safin is grateful and recently thanked his coach publicly for his perseverance.

“The hardest part is over,” affirms Gumy.“He’s back in shape, he’s found his tennis again and when he gets his confidence back, he’ll be able to do some damage. For a while he thought that his time had gone, that he was finished. I can tell you that he no longer thinks like that. He has big ambitions!”

Safin is at the foot of the mountain. The climb is just beginning…

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Jeden z lepszych jak nienajlepszy artykuł jak zdzarzyło mi sie czytać na temat Marata.

Karolka

Wywiad z Maratem po przegranej z Davydenko

Q. Did the tiebreaker in the first set decide the match, maybe?

MARAT SAFIN: Not really the match. But it would give me extra confidence. It would be easier for me to, you know, get closer to the winning situation at least. Because he started to play too confident after the first set.

When I was just all over the court, he was running pretty fast. And he had extra confidence, and I was a little bit not. I was missing opportunities left and right. That's why I think it was really important for me to get the tiebreak.

Q. So how do you feel now? Looking ahead at Wimbledon coming up and stuff, do you hope for more than a second round, I guess, at Roland Garros?

MARAT SAFIN: Yes, it's a little bit a pity, because I've been playing pretty well, actually. And with, I think, against a lot of players I will get through.

But the guy's playing really well. He is full of confidence. He knows how to play. He's serving well. He's returning every ball. He's fighting for every single point, so it's a little bit tough for a second round.

Just it's a little bit bad for me for second round to finish up the tournament like this.

Q. When you first saw him maybe five, six, eight, ten years ago, would you ever have imagined he would become this good?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, the kind of tennis that he had, it was very fast. He was playing the same way. And he was missing a lot. He was inexperienced.

Now with the time and the experience that he has, and he improves so many things in his tennis, so, of course when you see the person, you can see the potential. But you don't know. Especially with his tennis, the way he hits the ball. It was just really to see how far he can go.

For example, you say a guy would be to 95, a big server like Gulbis, you know for a fact that he's going to be a top 10 in a couple of years. Then you see Davydenko, and he's skinny guy, not really tall. And he plays pretty fast tennis. It's just too difficult to predict. It's very risky tennis, and it's very fast.

So if something happens and he's starting to lose confidence, the ball doesn't go anywhere. He just misses a couple of sets left and right. And that's it good tennis is gone.

Q. Have you started with the years to believe a little bit more about your chances at Wimbledon and on the grass?

MARAT SAFIN: I made quarterfinals, not many people really get to quarterfinals. But that was many years ago. A couple of years I missed because of the injury. And one year I was injured, so I didn't really have the chances.

Another couple of times I had a terrible tennis. I lost to Gonzalez a couple of years ago, and again 6‑Love up and two breakpoints. So I've not really played that bad, just didn't have enough chances.

Looking forward, I think I can do well, especially since I'm starting to play much better.

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