Marat Safin

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Marat Safin

Country	Russia
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Date of birth	January 27, 1980
Place of birth	Moscow, USSR
Height	193 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	88 kg (195 lbs)
Turned Pro	1997
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	US$12,778,575
Singles
Career record:	338 - 192
Career titles:	15
Highest ranking:	No. 1 (November 20, 2000)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	W (2005)
French Open	SF (2002)
Wimbledon	QF (2001)
U.S. Open	W (2000)
Doubles
Career record:	79 - 93
Career titles:	1
Highest ranking:	No. 71 (April 22, 2002)
Infobox last updated on: August 27, 2006.

Marat Safin (Tatar: Marat Mubin ulı Safin; Russian: Марат Мубинович (Михайлович) Сафин /mɑ.ˈrɑt.ˈsɑ.fən/; b. January 27, 1980) is a Tatar former World No. 1 tennis player from Russia.

Safin began his professional career in 1997 and held the No. 1 world ranking for 9 weeks in November and December of 2000. He is known for his large physical size, athleticism, controversial antics, and aggressive "power" style of play.

Safin's greatest accomplishments are winning the 2000 US Open and the 2005 Australian Open. He helped lead Russia to Davis Cup victory in 2002 and 2006.

Contents 1 Tennis Career 1.1 Equipment 2 Grand Slam singles finals 2.1 Wins (2) 2.2 Runner-ups (2) 3 Titles 3.1 Singles (15) 3.2 Singles finalist (11) 3.3 Performance timeline 3.4 Doubles (1) 3.5 Doubles finalist (4) 4 Trivia 5 External links

[edit] Tennis Career

Safin was born in Moscow, USSR (now Russia) to an ethnic Muslim Tatar family. His parents, Rausa Islanova and Mubin Safin, were former tennis players and coaches. His younger sister is a professional tennis player Dinara Safina, and against public belief, his sister is not the singer Alsou Safin, although her brother shares his name and that they are both from Tatar family. Mubin 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. However, Safin failed to live up to this hype. 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 later described the match as "a brain fight". Safin's win ended Federer's 26-match winning streak over top-10 players, denting the Swiss player's aura of supposed invincibility.

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 notorious among both fans and commentators for his emotional outbursts during matches. 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.

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 captain Shamil 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.

On August 17, 2006, after a disappointing year, Safin temporarily parted ways with coach Peter Lundgren. ^[1]

On the 2006 US Open, Safin looked like he was back on track as he defeated world's #4 David Nalbandian on the 2nd Round in a 5th Set tiebreaker. However, his run didn't last much longer as on the 4th Round he lost to former world's #2 Tommy Haas, also on a 5th set tiebreaker.

Safin's current improvement in form has continued, firstly in September, with an impressive home Davis Cup tie where Russia beat the USA 3-2 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, Safin defeated Jose Acasuso 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in the 5th rubber of the 2006 Davis Cup, winning the cup for Russia. He had previously lost 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 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.

[edit] 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 purposes (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. ^[2]

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.^[3]. His clothing and shoe sponsor is Adidas and has been for the last seven years.

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] Titles

[edit] 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	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 (I)	Dominik Hrbatý	2-6 6-4 6-4
8.	Nov 13, 2000	Paris, France	Carpet (I)	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 (I)	Rainer Schüttler	3-6 6-3 6-3
11.	Oct 28, 2002	Paris, France	Carpet (I)	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 (I)	David Nalbandian	6-2 6-4 6-3
14.	Nov 1, 2004	Paris, France	Carpet (I)	Radek Štěpánek	6-3 7-65 6-3
15.	Jan 17, 2005	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Lleyton Hewitt	1-6 6-3 6-4 6-4

[edit] Singles finalist (11)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	Nov 7, 1999	Paris, France	Carpet (I)	Andre Agassi	6-7 2-6 6-4 4-6
2.	May 21, 2000	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Gustavo Kuerten	4-6 7-5 4-6 7-5 6-7
3.	Aug 20, 2000	Indianapolis, USA	Hard	Gustavo Kuerten	6-3 6-7 6-7
4.	Feb 4, 2001	Dubai, UAE	Hard	Juan Carlos Ferrero	6-2 6-3
5.	Jan 27, 2002	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Thomas Johansson	6-3 4-6 4-6 6-7
6.	May 19, 2002	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Roger Federer	1-6 3-6 4-6
7.	Apr 27, 2003	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Carlos Moya	7-5 2-6 2-6 0-3, ret.
8.	Feb 1, 2004	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Roger Federer	6-7 4-6 2-6
9.	Apr 18, 2004	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Juan Ignacio Chela	7-6 3-6 3-6
10.	Jun 12, 2005	Halle, Germany	Grass	Roger Federer	4-6 7-6 4-6
11.	Oct 9, 2006	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Nikolay Davydenko	4-6 7-5 4-6

[edit] Performance timeline

Tournament	Career	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Australian Open	26-5	-	-	3R	1R	4R	F	3R	F	W	-
French Open	23-8	-	4R	4R	QF	3R	SF	-	4R	4R	1R
Wimbledon	9-7	-	1R	-	2R	QF	2R	-	1R	3R	2R
US Open	20-6	-	4R	2R	W	SF	2R	-	1R	-	4R
Grand Slams W-L	78-26	-	6-3	6-3	12-3	14-4	13-4	2-0	9-4	12-2	4-3
Tennis Masters Cup	4-7	-	-	-	-	SF	RR	-	SF	-

Finals reached	0	2	5	1	4	3	9	2	0	0	26
Tournaments Won	0	1	3	0	1	2	7	1	0	0	15
Win-Loss	20-17	27-11	52-23	12-11	56-26	45-27	73-27	39-32	17-18	0-1	341-193
Year End Rank [Best Rank]	203	49	23	2	11	3	77	4	12	26	[1]

[edit] Doubles (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner
1.	2001	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Roger Federer

[edit] Doubles finalist (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner
1.	1999	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Andrei Medvedev
2.	2001	St. Petersburg, Russia	Hard Indoors	Irakli Labadze
3.	2002	St. Petersburg, Russia	Hard Indoors	Irakli Labadze
4.	2005	Halle, Germany	Grass	Joachim Johansson

[edit] Trivia

• Safin's younger sister, Dinara Safina, is a US Open Women's Doubles finalist, as well as a top 20 player on the WTA Tour.

[edit] External links

• MARAT SAFIN serving an ace (actualité, résultats, classements, photos, vidéos, sondages, jeux...)

• Marat Safin OnlineFansite
• Profile on ATP website
• Marat Safin.com Official website
• Safinator Fansite
• Marat Safin at the Internet Movie Database
• Marat Safin at the Notable Names Database

Preceded by: Pete Sampras Gustavo Kuerten Gustavo Kuerten	World No. 1 November 20, 2000 - December 3, 2000 January 29, 2001 - February 25, 2001 April 2, 2001 - April 22, 2001	Succeeded by: Gustavo Kuerten Gustavo Kuerten Gustavo Kuerten
Preceded by: Julian Alonso	ATP Newcomer of the Year 1998	Succeeded by: Juan Carlos Ferrero
Preceded by: Nicolás Lapentti	ATP Most Improved Player 2000	Succeeded by: Goran Ivanišević
Preceded by: Sergio García	Laureus World Newcomer of the Year 2001	Succeeded by: Juan Pablo Montoya

Association of Tennis Professionals | World No. 1's in Men's tennis
Andre Agassi | Boris Becker | Björn Borg | Jimmy Connors | Jim Courier | Stefan Edberg | Roger Federer | Juan Carlos Ferrero | Lleyton Hewitt | Yevgeny Kafelnikov | Gustavo Kuerten | Ivan Lendl | John McEnroe | Carlos Moyá | Thomas Muster | Ilie Năstase | John Newcombe | Patrick Rafter | Marcelo Ríos | Andy Roddick | Marat Safin | Pete Sampras | Mats Wilander