Marat Safin
Marat Safin
Marat Mubinovich Safinis a Russian retired tennis player and politician. Safin won two Grand Slam tournaments and reached the world no. 1 ranking during his career. He was also famous for his emotional outbursts and sometimes fiery temper on court. Safin is the older brother of former world No. 1 WTA player, Dinara Safina. They are the first and only brother–sister tandem in tennis history who have both achieved no. 1 rankings...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth27 January 1980
CityMoscow, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
I'm ambitious. I better start climbing back up there, because otherwise I will not get into tournaments. People will not take me as serious. It's very important to show everybody I still know how to play tennis and I'm still fighting.
I didn't expect to win. It was a big surprise.
The injury wasn't serious. But unfortunately I stopped playing too late. After Wimbledon I was advised to stop for two or three months but I did not take the advice.
But, despite all that, I have a lot more good memories than bad of being here and I would love to come back next year.
Everything worked out. I'm satisfied with my game today. If it goes like this, I have good chances to play well in this tournament,
I tried my best but unfortunately in the third set he was much better than me. I had no strength and almost fell over a couple of times, but I was trying.
I didn't expect to win. I felt I had no chance whatsoever. I felt lost on the court.
Maybe I went for it too much, ... I started to make mistakes and I became frustrated as he became more solid.
In the second set I was a little bit nervous because, I was playing too good, and I almost lost the second set. It's a little bit too early to say that I'm getting closer to my best shape. But at least I'm fighting.
All the time you are under pressure because there is Pete Sampras opposite you so you have to come up with great shots.
If I can put pressure on his serve, I'd have a chance. It's going to be very hard because he has been playing amazingly.
It's kind of difficult. It (the knee injury) is still in my head. When you feel some pain in some movements, you try to avoid those. After the first couple of games, I tried to forget about it and focus on the game.
There was so much wind, it was tough to play good tennis. I'm having trouble getting my confidence back. But I'm working hard and trying to do it.
I was ill the last two days. I was still a bit weak. I wasn't ready for this.