Marat Safin (born January 27, 1980) is a Russian former World No. 1 tennis player. He is of Tatar ethnicity. He speaks Russian, English and Spanish. Safin began his professional career in 1997 and held the No. 1 world ranking for 9 weeks in November and December of 2000. He achieved his first Grand Slam title at the 2000 U.S. Open after defeating Pete Sampras, and later won the 2005 Australian Open defeating Lleyton Hewitt. Safin also helped lead Russia to Davis Cup victories in 2002 and 2006. Early life Marat Safin was born in Moscow, USSR (now Russia), to an ethnic Tatar, Muslim family and is a non-practising Muslim. His parents were former tennis players and coaches. His younger sister is a professional tennis player Dinara Safina. (She reached the finals of the 2008 French Open, losing to Ana Ivanovic of Serbia). Safin's father managed the local Spartak Tennis Club where Safin trained in his youth alongside several tennis players, including Anna Kournikova, Elena Dementieva, and Anastasia Myskina. At age fourteen he moved to Valencia, Spain, to gain access to advanced tennis training programs which were not available in Russia. Safin says he grew up "very fast...with no muscles" and that he moved to Spain because clay courts were "better for the knees." Marat Safin speaks fluent Spanish as a result. Tennis career Safin started his professional career in 1997. In 1998, Safin consecutively defeated Andre Agassi and defending champion Gustavo Kuerten at the French Open. World No.1 and Grand Slam history Safin held the No. 1 ATP ranking for 9 weeks during 2000 when he won his first Grand Slam tournament at the US Open, by defeating Pete Sampras in straight sets. Sampras praised him as "the tennis of the future." However, a succession of injuries hindered his progress and Marat Safin missed the majority of the season in 2003 as a result. Safin reached the final round in three more Grand Slam tournaments, all in the Australian Open in 2002, 2004, and 2005. He has cited nervousness as the reason for his loss in the 2002 event, and physical exhaustion for the 2004 loss. He defeated home-country favorite Lleyton Hewitt in the 2005 finals to secure his second Grand Slam in five years. En route to this final, he defeated top-ranked Roger Federer in a five-set semi-final match. After ending Federer's 26-match winning streak over top-10 players, Marat Safin described the match as "a brain fight." His best result at the Wimbledon is reaching the quarterfinals in 2001, often losing in the first or second rounds. In 2002, he reached the semifinals of the French Open, his best performance there to date. Masters' Series Marat Safin has won five ATP Tennis Masters Series titles during his career. His first was in 2000 when he won the title in Toronto, Canada. He holds a record-tying three (2000, 2002, and 2004) wins in Paris, France, and one in 2004 in Madrid, Spain. Tennis Masters' Cup In 2004, Safin reached the Semifinal of the Tennis Masters' Cup in Houston, where he was defeated by Roger Federer, 63, 76(18). The second-set tiebreak was the third tiebreak of the score 20-18 in the Open Era. Safin also reached the semifinals in 2000.
Davis Cup Marat Safin helped Russia achieve its first Davis Cup victory in 2002, with a 32 tie-breaking win against France in the final round at the Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy. His Russian team included Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Mikhail Youzhny, Andrei Stoliarov, and team captain Shamil Tarpischev.[16] The team made Davis Cup history by being the second to win the event after losing the doubles tie-breaker, and becoming the first team to win a (live-televised) five-set finals match by coming back from a two-set deficit. Marat Safin also helped Russia to win the Davis Cup in 2006. After a straight sets defeat by David Nalbandian in his first match, his doubles victory (partnering Dmitry Tursunov) against Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri and singles victory against Jose Acasuso drove Russia to victory. 2005 After winning the 2005 Australian Open, Marat Safin attributed his recent revival and more consistent performance to the calming presence of his new coach Peter Lundgren, saying that "I never believed in myself before at all, until I started to work with him." Lundgren had been Federer's coach, until parting ways at the end of 2003; Safin hired Lundgren the following year. He was later defeated in the early rounds of each of the seven tournaments he played between the Australian Open and the French Open. In June 2005, shortly after his unsuccessful French Open campaign, Safin made a surprise finals appearance at the Wimbledon tune-up tournament in Halle on grass. He lost the final narrowly to the defending champion, Roger Federer Although a serious knee-injury hampered Safin's progression and rankings within the ATP (he missed the 2005 US Open and 2006 Australian Open), Safin made appearances at the 2006 ATP Masters tournaments at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg. On August 17, 2006, after a disappointing year during which Marat Safin suffered injuries and his ranking plummeted to as low as 104, Safin temporarily parted ways with coach Peter Lundgren. At the 2006 US Open, Safin defeated David Nalbandian, who was then World #4, in the 2nd Round in a 5th Set tiebreaker, but lost at the 4th Round to former world #2 Tommy Haas, also on a 5th set tiebreaker. Safin helped Russia beat the USA 32 to gain a place in the finals in December 2006, and secondly with a good run at the start of the indoor season the Thailand Open where he was narrowly edged out by #7 seed, James Blake. On October 14, 2006, Safin made it to his first final in a year-and-a-half at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, the first all Russian final at that event, losing to Nikolay Davydenko. On December 3, 2006, Marat Safin defeated Jose Acasuso 63, 36, 63, 76 (5) in the 5th rubber of the 2006 Davis Cup, winning the cup for Russia. He had previously lost 64, 64, 64 to David Nalbandian in his first match. In the doubles match, he teamed with Dmitry Tursunov to win the doubles match against Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri in straight sets.
Marat Safin played no warm-up tournaments in the run up to the Australian Open. As Safin was forced to miss the tournament in 2006 due to injury, 2007 was his first Australian Open since he captured the title in 2005. Safin lost against sixth seed Andy Roddick in the third round match by 67, 62, 46, 67 in a grueling 3-hour match. Roddick commented after the match, "With Marat you know you are going to get an emotional roller-coaster. You just have to try and focus on yourself and I was able to do that tonight. In April, Marat won the deciding quarter-final Davis Cup rubber against France, beating Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets. Marat Safin reached the third round at Wimbledon, before falling to the defending champion Roger Federer. In July, Safin announced that he and his coach Alexander Volkov were parting and that his new coach would be former pro Hernαn Gumy. Marat Safin won the doubles title at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow in October, his first ATP-level title since the 2005 Australian Open. 2008 Safin prepared for the Australian Open at the invitational exhibition tournament, the AAMI Kooyong Classic in Melbourne. Other players in the field were Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez, Nikolay Davydenko, Marcos Baghdatis, Ivan Ljubicic and Andy Murray. Safin was victorious in his opening game, defeating Andy Murray 61 64 before falling to defeat in his second match to Andy Roddick 36 36. As stated on Safin's official website, no decision had been made as to what tournaments Marat Safin would play after the Australian Open - that it will be decided by his ranking at the end of the Open. At the 3rd place play-off at Kooyong 2008, Safin rebounded from the Roddick loss and overpowered last year's Australian Open runner up Fernando Gonzalez winning the match 63, 63. Safin won his first round match at the Australian Open against Ernests Gulbis in straight sets - 6/0 6/4 7/6 (2). He was ousted in the 2nd round after a grueling 5 set match against Baghdatis - 46 46 62 63 26. In February, Marat Safin was granted wildcards into the tournaments at Memphis and Las Vegas. In Memphis, he was edged out by his 2002 Australian Open opponent, Thomas Johansson, 76 76 in the first round. In Las Vegas he was defeated by Lleyton Hewitt during the semi-finals round in 2007 75, 61. Marat Safin was defeated by Hewitt once again by 62 61 in 58 minutes. In March, Marat Safin lost in the first round of Indian Wells and Miami, to Jurgen Melzer and qualifier Bobby Reynolds respectively. In the Davis Cup between Russia and the Czech Republic, Safin defeated world no 9 Tomas Berdych in a five set encounter, after being two sets down, 67 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4. This was the first time in his career that he has come back to win a match after being down 2 sets. This was also the first time Safin had beaten a top 10 player since US Open 2006. Safin said that he hoped that this would be a turnaround in his form. Safin's next tournament was in Valencia. He defeated former World No. 1 and number 4 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 5-7 6-4. He played Dutch teenager Robin Haase in the next round. He won the first set 6-2 and was up 4-2 in the 2nd set. However, Haase broke back to take it to a tiebreak. Safin had 4 match points, including one on his serve, but lost this tiebreak, and eventually the match. In the Monte Carlo Masters, Marat Safin defeated Xavier Malisse 6-3 6-2, but then lost to world number 5 David Ferrer 6-2 6-3.He then entered the 2008 BMW Open in Munich, Germany, where his first round opponent was Carlos Berlocq. Safin won 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. In the second round he edged out Michael Berrer 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-3, but lost to Fernando Gonzalez 7-5, 6-3 in his first quarterfinal of the year, and the first since June of 2007 at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington. D.C. Marat Safin also entered the 2008 French Open but was eliminated in Round 2 by countryman and No. 4 seed Nikolai Davydenko in straight sets, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2. Characteristics Safin is known for his emotional outbursts during matches, and has smashed numerous racquets. Marat Safin is estimated to have smashed 48 racquets in 1999. He frequently verbally berates himself for lost points, speaking in the languages of Russian, Spanish and English. He is also known for having arguments with the chair umpires. Playing style Safin's game is based around his physical size and strength to outplay his opponents generally with big strokes and pace. Although Safin is 193 cm (6 ft 4 in) tall, he has excellent footwork and foot speed on all surfaces unlike other players of his height. Lack of consistency and focus has been described as Safin's weakness. However when Safin is mentally fit, he possesses a very powerful all-round game that is capable of defeating most opponents on virtually any surface. Although Safin is a big hitter from both wings, a big server and a solid volleyer, he considers grass his least favorite surface which has been generally dominated by players who have playing styles similar to Marat Safin. Safin's best performance at the Wimbledon was reaching the quarterfinals in 2001. Safin dismissed his performance in 2001 as a result of luck. Marat Safin says that "It's difficult to [break serve]. It's difficult to play off the baseline because [of] a lot of bad bounces." Equipment Marat Safin officially uses the Head Microgel Prestige mid-size tennis racquet. Safin won his first Grand Slam the US Open in 2000, where he used the Head Prestige Classic 600. A year later Safin signed with Dunlop and played with the Dunlop 200MG. In 2002 Safin reverted back to using the Head Prestige Classic 600 and has played with the PC600 ever since, although painted as the following racquets purely for promotional purposes (including the Dunlop), respectively: iPrestige, Liquidmetal Prestige, the Flexpoint Prestige, and currently the Microgel Prestige. His racquets used to be strung using Babolat VS Natural Team Gut 17L gauge. He now uses a 'hybrid' of Babolat VS Team Gut 17L (crosses) and Luxilon ALU-Power Rough 16L (mains) strung at about 62 lbs and 64 lbs respectively. His clothing and shoe sponsor has been adidas for the last eight years.
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