Marat Safin

Marat Safin (Tatar: Marat Mixail ulı Safin; Russian: Марат Михайлович Сафин ; b. January 27, 1980) is a professional tennis player from the Russian Federation (he is an ethnic Tatar). He started his professional career in 1997 and held the No. 1 world ranking for 9 weeks. Safin is known for his large physical size, athleticism, controversial antics, mercurial talent, and aggressive "power" style of play. He is one of the most well-liked players on tour for his sense of humor and his good looks.

Safin's greatest accomplishments are winning the 2000 US Open and the 2005 Australian Open, two of professional tennis' four "Grand Slam" tournaments.

Tennis Career

Born in Moscow, Russia, Safin is the son of top ten tennis player Rausa Islanova and Misha Safin, and is the brother of tennis player Dinara Safina. Misha managed the local Spartak Tennis Club where Safin trained in his youth aside several up and coming tennis players, including Anna Kournikova, Elena Dementieva, and Anastasia Myskina. At age fourteen he moved to Valencia, Spain, to access advanced tennis training programs which were not available in Russia. Safin gained the attention of the tennis establishment in 1998 with his consecutive victories over Andre Agassi and (defending champion) Gustavo Kuerten at the French Open.

Safin held the No. 1 ATP ranking for 9 weeks during 2000. In that year, he won his first Grand Slam tournament at the US Open, by defeating (then-) 4-time US Open winner and (eventual) 14-time Grand Slam tournament winner Pete Sampras in straight sets. Tennis experts immediately hailed Safin as the new star who would dominate tennis in future years. Safin failed to live up to this hype, however; a periodic lack of mental focus during matches led to inconsistent performances (generally purported to be a result of his notoriously volatile temper). In addition, he suffered a succession of injuries which affected his game and, in 2003, resulted in his missing the majority of the season.

Safin has 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 an epic five-set semi-final match; Safin showed uncharacteristic calmness, and superior shot selection, to match Federer stroke for stroke. Safin later described the match as "a brain fight". Safin's phenomenal win ended Federer's 26-match winning streak over top-10 players, denting the Swiss player's aura of supposed invincibility. Safin is widely recognized as one of the players who can test Federer the most with his talent and arsenal of powerful shots.

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. In 2004, Safin reached the Semifinal of the Tennis Master's Cup in Houston, but was defeated by Roger Federer, 6-3, 7-6(18). The second-set tiebreak was the third tiebreak of the score 20-18 in the Open Era.

After winning the 2005 Australian Open, 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. All the talk about Safin finding his consistency was a false dawn, however, as he was 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 -- admittedly, his least-favorite playing surface. He lost the final narrowly to the defending champion, Roger Federer.

Safin is a popular figure among both fans and commentators. His tendency to become overly emotional during matches, credited for several of his losses, has resulted in spontaneous on-the-court behavior. He is noted for having smashed numerous rackets and, at the 2004 Roland Garros tournament, he pulled his shorts down to his thighs after winning a point in a second round match against Felix Mantilla. This behavior, and the support he receives from legions of female fans, has resulted in the handsome Safin's receiving distinction as a player capable of generating celebrity for a sport which experiences slumps in popularity.

Marat Safin also helped Russia to its first Davis Cup victory in 2002, with a 3-2 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 captainShamil Tarpischev. 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.

Although a serious knee-injury has hampered Safin's progression and rankings within the ATP (he missed the 2005 US Open and 2006 Australian Open), he has since got back-on track with appearances at the 2006 ATP Masters tournaments at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg.Although his poor results at these tournament suggests that a full return to his peak condition may take some time, he showed that he is still one of the most feared players on the hardcourt circuit with a superb win over up-and-coming French star, Richard Gasquet in the France v Russia Davis Cup-tie. In front of a rowdy French crowd, Safin showed he can control his temperament and display mental toughness, pounding his groundstrokes and blasting 33 aces, finally beating Gasquet in 5-sets - a 3hr 45min match that Safin described as his best since clinching the Australian Open title in 2005. Gasquet was even more complimentary in defeat: ""Safin was great. I did what I could. I really have very little to reproach myself for. His service is monstrous. He has enormous power and talent. He's a very hard adversary to play against."

Equipment

Marat Safin officially uses the Head Flexpoint 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 pruposes (including the Dunlop), respectively: iPrestige, LiquidMetal Prestige and finally the Flexpoint Prestige.

These claims have solid back-up by an article on tennis-racquet 'paintjobs' on the official ESPN.COM website back in 2004. ^[1]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 62lbs and 64lbs respectively.^[2].His clothing and shoe sponsor has been Adidas for the last seven years.

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2000	U.S. Open	Pete Sampras	6-4, 6-3, 6-3
2005	Australian Open	Lleyton Hewitt	1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

Runner-ups (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2002	Australian Open	Thomas Johansson	6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-7
2004	Australian Open	Roger Federer	6-7, 4-6, 2-6

Titles (15)

Singles (15)

Legend Grand Slam (2) Tennis Masters Cup (0) ATP Masters Series (5) ATP Tour (8)

Titles by Surface Hard (10) Clay (2) Grass (0) Carpet (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	Aug 23, 1999	Boston, USA	Hard	Greg Rusedski	6-4 7-611
2.	Apr 24, 2000	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Juan Carlos Ferrero	6-3 6-3 6-4
3.	May 1, 2000	Majorca, Spain	Clay	Mikael Tillström	6-4 6-3
4.	Jul 31, 2000	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Harel Levy	6-2 6-3
5.	Aug 28, 2000	U.S. Open, New York, USA	Hard	Pete Sampras	6-4 6-3 6-3
6.	Sep 11, 2000	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Davide Sanguinetti	6-3 6-4
7.	Nov 6, 2000	St. Petersburg, Russia	Hard	Dominik Hrbatý	2-6 6-4 6-4
8.	Nov 13, 2000	Paris, France	Carpet	Mark Philippoussis	3-6 7-67 6-4 3-6 7-68
9.	Sep 10, 2001	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Hard	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6-2 6-2
10.	Oct 22, 2001	St. Petersburg, Russia	Hard	Rainer Schüttler	3-6 6-3 6-3
11.	Oct 28, 2002	Paris, France	Carpet	Lleyton Hewitt	7-64 6-0 6-4
12.	Sep 13, 2004	Beijing, China	Hard	Mikhail Youzhny	7-64 7-5
13.	Oct 18, 2004	Madrid, Spain	Hard	David Nalbandian	6-2 6-4 6-3
14.	Nov 1, 2004	Paris, France	Carpet	Radek Štěpánek	6-3 7-65 6-3
15.	Jan 17, 2005	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Lleyton Hewitt	1-6 6-3 6-4 6-4

Singles finalist (10)

*1999: Paris AMS (lost to Andre Agassi)
*2000: Hamburg (lost to Gustavo Kuerten)
*2000: Indianapolis (lost to Gustavo Kuerten)
*2001: Dubai (lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero)
*2002: Australian Open (lost to Thomas Johansson)
*2002: Hamburg AMS (lost to Roger Federer)
*2003: Barcelona (lost to Carlos Moya)
*2004: Australian Open (lost to Roger Federer)
*2004: Estoril (lost to Juan Ignacio Chela)
*2005: Halle (lost to Roger Federer)

Performance timeline

Tournament	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997
Australian Open>align="center"|-	W	F	3r	F	4r	1r	3r	-	-
French Open>align="center"|1r	4r	4r	-	SF	3r	QF	4r	4r	-
Wimbledon>align="center"|2r	3r	1r	-	2r	QF	2r	-	1r	-|-	US Open>align="center"|align="center"|align="center"|1r	-	2r	SF	W	2r	4r	-|-	Tennis Masters Cup>align="center"|align="center"|-	SF	-	RR	-	SF	-	-	-|- bgcolor="#efefef"	Finals reached>align="center"|align="center"|2	5	1	3	3	9	2	0	0|- bgcolor="#efefef"	Tournaments Won>align="center"|align="center"|1	3	0	1	2	7	1	0	0|- bgcolor="#efefef"	Win-Loss>align="center"|align="center"|24-10	52-23	12-11	56-26	45-27	73-27	39-32	17-18	0-1|- bgcolor="#efefef"	ATP Race points>align="center"|align="center"|321	612	93	569	384	824	N/A	N/A	2803|- bgcolor="#efefef"	Year End Ranking>align="center"|align="center"|12	4	66	3	11	2	26	49	213

External Links

*Marat Safin OnlineFansite
* Profile on ATP website
* Marat Safin.com Official website
* Safinator Fansite
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