Five things we'll miss about Marat

Bet on it: At some point in the near future, you will hear the following words. "I wish tennis still had guys like Marat Safin, crazy guys who would smash all their racquets. That's when the game had personality."

In this way, Safin is destined to become the modern-day Ilie Nastase. Like Nasty, he was blessed with otherworldly talent, but not with the mental discipline to consistently make the most of it. Each ended his career with two Grand Slam titles, but each will be remembered primarily as a charismatic character rather than a champion.

That's only fair, but there will be more to miss about Safin than just his ability to splinter a stick. Here are five aspects of the man and his game that tennis will be poorer without.

The sound of his shots
If greatness in tennis were measured sonically, Safin would be the player of the era, not Roger Federer. Whether he was practicing around the corner from you, or playing in the final of a major, there was no mistaking the thudding echo of the ball coming off his strings, especially when he rifled a winning backhand up the line.

Speaking of that backhand …
Safin squandered much of his talent, but he had such a surfeit of it that he still made a lasting contribution to the sport's evolution. When he debuted in the late-90s, he was one of the first men to take the two-hander up the line for a winner on a regular basis. Until then, the inside-out forehand, as developed by Ivan Lendl and Jim Courier, had dominated. The all-around slugfest that characterizes the men's game today was born.

His sense of honor
After his final match Wednesday, Safin said, "I've been great to everybody, even if I had a few fights with chair umpires." More than his achievements, this seems to have been what Safin valued most. His solidarity with his fellow players didn't help him win matches; if he lacked anything essential as a player, it was a killer instinct. But I'll miss his postmatch handshakes, and the respect he showed his opponents whether he'd won or lost. It was the same respect that led him to keep his celebrations muted even after he won his Grand Slams. He was one of the guys.

His human side
The popular belief is that Safin was too much of a hothead to be a champion. But his problem may have been that he was too normal. He didn't love having to get up and hit the same shot over and over and over every day. He didn't love answering questions about his life. He often couldn't master his nerves in close matches. He had good days followed by bad and found it hard to keep his eyes glued to the ultimate goal. Does this sound like anyone you know? Yourself, perhaps?

His fans
Tennis needs champions and warriors, but a good-looking rogue doesn't hurt, either. You could always tell one of his matches was happening just by the feeling in air around it -- there was an edgy sense of anticipation. The court overflowed with fans who were waiting -- hoping -- for the big guy to blow a gasket. Just like I'll miss hearing his strings hitting a ball, I'll miss walking into a side court at a Slam and hearing the crowd's buzz. It wasn't a buzzy, really; it was a titter. What other proof of Safin's value to the sport do we need? A million girls around the world can't be wrong.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/ind … ame=tennis

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I suppose it's time to say goodbye to Marat Safin, but where do you start with his enormously wasted careeer? Almost at the beginning, with his triumph at age 20 over Pete Sampras in the final of the 2000 U.S. Open?

Or should we begin at the 2004 French Open, another great memory -- where he dropped his shorts after an interminably long but beautiful point against Felix Mantilla and where, in an interview a few days later, he held up several sushi-grade fingers, worn to the nub by blisters, in a loss to David Nalbandian.

I don't know. What a character! It's all good, isn't it? And almost all bad at the same time. This beautifully constructed, immensely gifted tennis player who spent the last nine years squandering his talent.

I could probably sum up the waste by telling you that he won 15 titles in his perplexing career, the last being a Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open in 2005. He wins his second major and then . . . poof. Nothing.

A little more than nine years ago, I sat in a post-final press conference at the U.S. Tennis Center, listening to a strangely unaffected Sampras herald the coming of the next dominant men's player.

"Beating me the way he did (straight sets), he's going to have an aura about him for the rest of the year and beyond," said Pete. "Being so dominant, playing so great in such a big match. . .but things will be different for him.

"Once you win that Grand Slam, the pressure definitely is inflated a little bit. We all have experienced it. I think he'll handle it fine. But I'm sure he'll go through his lulls over his career."

And then, the nut summation from Sampras: "I think, all in all, he's going to be in contention for Grand Slams forever."

Pete was asked that day if Safin could not only reach No. 1, but stay there a long time. "He could if he wants to do it," Sampras replied. "It's a decision you have to make on your life and how much you want to be on top of the game, deal with the pressures.

"The way he played today and these two weeks, he can be No. 1 for many, many years. Because of his game, he can play well on the clay, obviously. And on the fast, hard court. On grass, he can do pretty well, I think. I mean, he can really be dominant because of his power."

Safin had almost everything needed to supplant Sampras. Big serve, ability to get to the net, impeccable backhand, strong forehand. He was physically imposing. With the exception of the final points in that third set against Pete, where he had some minor nervousness, he was completely hinged in his first major final.

He had almost everything he needed. He never had a head for the game.

He had already established a well deserved reputation as a racket-buster when he arrived at the 2000 U.S. Open. Whoever represented Head rackets in those days was a busy boy with Safin. But his short temper didn't seem a problem at the time. It never seemed to bother Goran Ivanisevic, who reached three Wimbledon finals. Why should it affect Safin's game?

But there were other small signs of emotional instability. After beating Thierry Guardiola in the first round at the Open, Safin went into a funk over his next match, against slice-and-dice Italian Gianluca Pozzi, who had beaten the big guy on grass at Queens earlier in the year.

"I can't beat this guy. He drives me crazy," Safin said, showing no belief in himself. But he won in five. Then, after blowing a two-set lead, beat Sebastien Grosjean in the third round.

Next, he left his extra socks and shorts at his hotel in Manhattan and had to borrow clothes from Nicolas Kiefer. If we'd all been alert, we would have figured, "No way this guy is a champion. He's a ditz." But the fact is we all thought all this stuff was charming.

So he won the Open in front of 24,000 and a players box packed with his coach, Alexander Volkov, and about a dozen Russian babes who made Anna Kournikova look like a grade-school beauty queen. Afterward, he rented out the old Russian Tea Room in Manhattan and the vodka flowed all night.

He followed up by doing almost nothing in the first half of 2001, losing in the round of 16 at Australia to Dominik Hrbaty and going out in his first match at Key Biscayne to a doubles player named Juan Barcells.

At the '01 French I ran into Andrei Medvedev, the Ukrainian who was then at the end of his career, and I asked him what was wrong with Safin.

"The Russians have a saying," he said. "We win one year. . .we celebrate the next." I laughed, but he had it pegged.

Over the next several years there would be so many "Safin moments." Dropping his shorts at the French was a hoot, but it cost him a point penalty and he ripped into the entire tennis establishment afterward.

"They tried to destroy the match. All the people who run the sport, they have no clue. It's a pity that tennis is really going down the drain. Every year it's getting worse and worse and worse. There has to be a radical change, and I hope it will be really soon," he ranted.

And there was his blisters vs. Nalbandian. I still cringe looking at how reddened they were. And so many other times when this mountain of a player would emit a complete lack of confidence in himself or his game.

It never made much sense.

Marat has played 17 majors since his triumph at Australia and been past the fourth round just once, in his last hurrah at the 2008 Wimbledon, where he played his last great match in defeating Novak Djokovic in straights in the second round.

He lost to Roger Federer that year in the semis and, in 2009, has waded through a season filled with more nostalgia than victories after announcing this was his last year.

How does he want to be remembered? "As a decent tennis player," he replied.

He'll get his wish. He was certainly a decent player. Even more than a decent player with two Slams and four weeks at No. 1. But there could have been so much more.

You have to want it, Sampras said back in 2000. Safin never really did.

http://www.tennisnews.com/exclusive.php?pID=29949%20-

Zdjecia z gali w Moskwie:










Rausa "Mama" Islanova ( mama Marata )

Marat Safin will run for the post of vice-president of the ROC

MOSCOW, November 21 - RIA Novosti. The famous tennis player, former first racket of the world Marat Safin will run for vice-president of Olympic Committee of Russia (CBR), reports Saturday edition of "Sport-Express".

Safin, on the basis of season-2009 completed its sports career, in 2000 became the first racket of the world. During the years of speeches, he won 15 tournaments, earning only on the court about 14,4 million dollars. Last Monday, Safin received an honorary award "Russian Cup" in the nomination "For contribution to the development of the world and Russia's tennis."

During the award ceremony, President of the Tennis Federation of Russia (OFWs), Shamil Tarpishchev told RIA Novosti, when asked about the future poslesportivnom Safin: "We are definitely going to use his experience, but for this you will know in December."

Election of the President, First Vice-President and Vice-Presidents of the ROC will be held in Moscow on 17 December.

http://www.sports.ru/tennis/49013437.html

No to Safin na prezydenta

Odświeżam.

Marat ma nowy dom na naszym forum

Top seed Flavia Pennetta: free sex with Moya and romp with Safin


Tennis beauty Flavia Pennetta, seeded 10 at WTA ranking, made explosive declarations. Pennetta unveiled details of her sex life with tennists and she unleashed a polemic when she affirmed that some tennis players take cocaine just for fun.

“With (Carlos) Moya I had free sex all over the tournament. We shared a room and we didn’t practise abstinence as we’re advised, though we did practise free sex,” said the Italian.

Panneta has no commitments now since “Moya fell in love with someone else”, and she admits three or four tennist players have tried to pull her since she broke up with the Spaniard. “The last one was a Brazilian, but I said now because I didn’t fancy him.”

Same sex relationships don’t cross her mind, but she admits it wouldn’t be difficult to experiment because in there’re lots of lesbians in tennis. She hasn’t received any offers anyway, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t tried sex in the changing rooms. And also on the clay, the grass and on a plane. The “flight was very long.”

Pannetta denied having tried cocaine. And she said her favourite players are, and not exactly because of their performance, “Tommy Haas is the most handsome one, but she’d have a romp with Marat Safin.” You gotta a call, Marat…

http://momento24.com/en/2009/09/29/top- … ith-safin/

2009: tenisiści, którzy zakończyli kariery

Marat Safin (Rosja, 29 lat), 2 tytuły wielkoszlemowe, 9 tygodni na czele rankingu ATP
Marat Safin dał się poznać światu podczas Roland Garros 1998, kiedy to pokonał Andre Agassiego i broniącego tytułu Gustavo Kuertena. Dwa lata później na kortach Flushing Meadows zdobył swój pierwszy tytuł wielkoszlemowy, pokonując w nowojorskim finale ulubieńca publiczności, Pete'a Samprasa. Dzięki temu zasiadł na fotelu lidera rankingu ATP i był na nim z przerwami przez dziewięć tygodni (do kwietnia 2001). W latach 2002, 2004 i 2005 dochodził do finałów Australian Open, ale wygrał tylko ten ostatni (jak się potem okazało, triumf w Melbourne był ostatnim singlowym w jego karierze). Safin trzykrotnie awansował do półfinałów Tennis Masters Cup, w latach 2000, 2002 i 2004. Zawsze był mocnym punktem rosyjskiej drużyny w Pucharze Davisa. Przyczynił się do triumfu swojego kraju w tym turnieju w edycjach 2002 i 2006. Rosjanin znany jest z okazywania swoich emocji na korcie, co najczęściej odbija się na jego... rakietach. W Moskwie stworzono nawet muzeum z uszkodzonym przez tenisistę sprzętem. Safin, po wcześniejszym deklaracjach, zakończył swoją karierę 11 listopada 2009, przegrywając mecz drugiej rundy z Juanem Martinem del Potro w paryskiej hali Bercy.

http://www.tenisklub.pl/?req=news&newsI … feb3bf83ad

Marat w Deuce.

A TORTURED GENIUS FINALLY RESTS

Former ATP pro Justin Gimelstob profiles the legacy of Marat Safin, one of the most charismatic and complex tennis personalities in recent years, who retired from professional tennis in November.

Tennis is a sport that challenges its participants with two competing extremes.  In order to be successful, a player needs to simultaneously maintain both heightened intensity and detached calm.  It is an elusive balance that ironically lures perfectionists to a game that cannot be perfected.  Marat Safin embodies that dichotomy.  There has never been a player who has made the game look so easy externally while internally being at such odds with his emotions and mind.

When Safin burst onto the ATP World Tour in 1997, it was with both an explosive game and temperament.  Neither subsided throughout his career.  Safin was in a lot of ways a pioneer of playing styles, a hybrid between physical dominance and technical efficiency. 

In 1997, Safin played his first Kremlin Cup and lost a third-set tie-break to savvy veteran Kenneth Carlsen. Talent dripped from his body more profusely than sweat from the rigorous match.  He was a combination of speed and natural power, the type of power that came with fluidity, not brute force.  Safin's red Head tennis racquet looked small in his hand, like a twig he was flinging through the air.  He strutted around the court with his now customary swagger, torpedoing balls with complete disregard to the score and occasion that underlined his high expectations

A few weeks ago, after Safin played his 12th and final Kremlin Cup – a typical Safin tournament with highs and lows – the former World No. 1 readily admitted that he had not achieved tennis perfection.  Of more relevance is the question of whether Safin maximised his talent, which many fans think should have yielded far more than two Grand Slam championship titles. 

In a first round upset of his compatriot Nikolay Davydenko, Safin still had the signature two-handed backhand that, when he lowered his shoulder, sounded like a thud echoing throughout the giant stadium.   His footwork had slowed a touch leading to more errors, but his back-arching serve still helped him to the upset, his best win of the year.  Yet in the next round, he lost to emerging Russian youngster Evgeny Korolev, a player many have likened to a young Safin.

"I would have loved to win in Moscow at least once," Safin said. "'Is it disappointing?'  Yes.  I am not perfect and neither was my career.  In the end tennis is like life, messy." 

After his loss to Korolev, Safin made good on his promise to show me around Moscow.  I was hanging out with ATP World Tour doubles player Ross Hutchins, and agent Allon Khakshouri in the player's lounge when Marat walked in, showered and changed after doing his post match press conference.

We all piled into his Porsche Turbo Cayenne and Marat navigated the traffic-packed streets like an experienced city driver.  Our first stop was Marat's beautiful, newly refurbished penthouse apartment in the heart of Moscow.  The apartment was straight out of an episode of Cribs.  What was even more impressive than the home was the satisfaction and detail Marat took in giving us our tour.

The home was obviously littered with the normal tennis player paraphernalia, tennis racquets strewn all over the place, and boxes and bags of adidas clothing, all demonstrations of a life lived out of a suitcase.   There were plenty of symbols of his Hall of Fame career: the US Open, Australian Open, and Davis Cup trophies, pictures with royalty, and other photos capturing unique moments in time, but it was the warmth of the home that showed the true humanity of the owner.

Marat took great pride in not just the home but also the effort he had gone to decorate it in his unique style.  One piece of furniture in particular, a one-of-a-kind hand-carved table from the bark of a very large tree was spectacular.  After a few celebratory toasts of Russian "milk" (meaning Vodka) the group jumped into some cabs and proceeded to have an extremely memorable evening.

Safin's anger and frustration was most often a result of his perfectionist approach not just to tennis, but also to life.  It has been well documented that Safin regularly broke tennis racquets when frustrated, snapping them as easily as if they were pencils.  "One year I probably broke about 50, but luckily I get them for free," he says.  One year after a loss at the Open 13 in Marseille, Safin took out his frustration on the locker room, wallpapering it with racquet shrapnel.  His response to bemused bystanders was, "Bad day!"

Like most people Safin's flaws were also his strengths.  In a technical sport like tennis it takes nearly a million repetitions of a stroke to gain mastery over it, thus it takes tireless work and intensity to become successful.  It is a misconception that Safin cared too little about his tennis; when in actuality it was his desire to master it that often impeded his progress.  "I am a perfectionist.  I always wanted to master the sport, but tennis is a sport that you can't be perfect at.  You learn more from your mistakes, and as a result you become stronger.  Sometimes it was my mind, other times injuries and my body, but at the end I accept I am what I am.  Tennis gave me everything I have in my life, so I am very thankful to the sport and I hope to find a way to stay involved in it in someway."

Safin's critics will be quick to point out that after winning the 2000 US Open it took Safin four years to win just one more Grand Slam championship - the 2005 Australian Open - and that he never won another title in the ensuing four years after leading up to his retirement.

"My career was definitely a roller coaster, but so many times when I was playing my best I got hurt."  Safin had major knee and wrist surgeries in his career that thwarted momentum, but there is no doubt that his ability to process pressure and manage the temptations his success created played a part in his inconsistency.  The 2002 Australian Open final against Thomas Johansson was a symbol of Safin's struggles.  Playing with all the pressure of being a huge favourite against a first Grand Slam final participant, Safin played a tentative and emotionally erratic final.  The only story that garnered more attention then the loss was that of the three provocatively-dressed women cheering Safin on from his player's box.

Although he clearly marches to the beat of his own drum, Safin said that his flamboyance should not be mistaken for lack of professionalism.  "I live for myself, I don't need other people's judgments.  People think I party every night, and it is insulting."

"In tennis you are all alone, fully exposed, there is no hiding."  You can say what you want about Safin but unlike most elite athletes and entertainers there is freshness in the ownership he takes over his actions.

Sipping a coffee at a Cincinnati Starbucks in August, Safin discussed his looming retirement, "I just can't do it anymore, the hotels, the flights, the same people, practising day after the day the same things, a million tennis balls.  I am not like Nadal where all I think about is tennis, it is time for something else.  One of the problems with being a tennis player is there is no time for anything except tennis.  The pressure is there all the time, no opportunity to learn or explore other interests.  That is what I am looking forward to the most, the freedom.  I know my second life will be much different than my first, but I am excited to see what else I can accomplish.

"I don't want to be one of these athletes that just sits around and doesn't do anything.  I plan to take about six months away from everything to regroup, and then start thinking about the next phase of my life."

Baby Sister
Marat and his sister Dinara are the only brother/sister duo to ever hold the No. 1 rankings in professional tennis.  "I am very proud of what Dinara has accomplished and it is sad and hurtful to me that all anyone ever wants to talk about is her not winning a Grand Slam," said Safin.  "I feel very protective of her.  I have supported her through the years and will always do so.  She doesn't deserve the negativity.  She is the ultimate success story.  She has proven that you can get to No. 1 by working incredibly hard.  She is the perfect sportswoman."  Few people know that Marat funded his sister's development and continued to subsidise her career well into the middle stages until she broke through.

Marat's Best Match
Perhaps surprisingly, Safin does not rate his stunning US Open final win over Pete Sampras, as a 20-year-old in 2000, as his best victory.  He says his 2005 Australian Open final win over Lleyton Hewitt was his signature achievement.  "When I played Pete there were no expectations, I wasn't thinking about anything, I had no fear, and I played a perfect match," he admitted.  "It almost didn't seem real.  But against Lleyton, it meant much more.  Everyone had written me off, I was playing with a lot of pressure because after beating Federer everyone expected me to win.  I got off to a terrible start and Lleyton was playing in front of his home crowd and I had to work so hard physically and mentally to win this match.  Winning this match is what I am most proud of in my career."

Greatest Of All-Time
"Roger Federer is definitely the best tennis player of all-time," he began.  "He is the perfect tennis player.  Some players are great physically, some mentally, and others technically, Roger is all of them.  He has no weaknesses.  You can find flaws in [Andre] Agassi and Sampras, but Federer has none.  He is the complete player.  When I played against him I always had the feeling that I had to play the perfect match and still hope that he had a bad day."

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/DEUCE- … Safin.aspx

A to Ci dopiero ... Safin zdaje sie być ojcem i to o 5-letnim stażu generalnie to ja nie wiem o co kaman ale mała z oczu Safinowa jak nic, czysta babka Rausa
Marat Safin admitted extramarital daughter


Ku*wa Safin zrobisz że ty coś po normalnemu, tak po kolei i całkiem zgodnie z czymś tam czy nie bardzo ?? Za tydzień sie dowiem, że ma hodowle pekińczyków a za dwa że że no nie wiem juz sama co !!

a tak btw to

Ostatnio edytowany przez Lena (18-01-2010 20:30:00)