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| Birth Name(s) : Marat Safin |
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Full Marat Safin Biography
Marat Safin (Tatar: Marat Mubin ulı Safin; Russian: Марат Михайлович Сафин /mɑ.ˈrɑt.ˈsɑ.fən/; b. January 27, 1980) is a Russian former World No. 1 tennis player of Tatar ethnicity..
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 good looks, large physical size, athleticism, controversial antics, and aggressive "power" style of play. He is fluent in Russian, English and Spanish.
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 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.
In 2004, Safin reached the Semifinal of the Tennis Masters' Cup in Houston, where he 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. Safin also reached the semifinals in 2001.
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. 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.
Although a serious knee-injury 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.
At the 2006 US Open, Safin looked like he was back on track as he defeated the then world #4 David Nalbandian in the 2nd Round in a 5th Set tiebreaker. However, his run didn't last much longer as in the 4th Round he lost to former world #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.
Safin played the first round against Germany's Benjamin Becker, defeating him in a 5 set battle, 5-7, 7-6(7-2), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Safin went on to beat Israeli qualifier Dudi Sela, from two sets to one down, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-0. Safin played sixth seed Andy Roddick in the much anticipated third round match, and lost 6-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-7 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." He later added jokingly: "And it doesn't help that he's nine feet tall".
After the US Open, Safin announced, via his official website, that he had prematurely ended his season as a result of a recurring wrist injury, felt during his 2nd round match in the US Open. He was to spend 4-6 weeks, beginning Friday the 14th of September, climbing the mountain of Cho Oyu, on the border of Nepal and Tibet. This trip was cut short as Safin, via a message on his official website, relayed his feelings of the difficulty of this trip. As a result he returned to Moscow on the 22nd of September, will be practising in Moscow with coach Gumy, and is hoping to return to tennis in the Madrid event. He was there to support the Russian team as they won through to the Final of the Davis Cup with a 3-2 win over Germany. They will play the USA in late November/early December, in Portland, USA.
Marat also entered in the singles event of the Kremlin Cup, in which he lost 4-6 4-6 to Igor Andreev in the 2nd round. He also played in the Madrid Masters only to lose first round to Ivo Karlovic 3-6 4-6. After this loss, he announced a premature end to his 2007 tennis season, as he believed he never fully recovered from his mountain climbing break. He will not play for Russia in the Davis Cup Final but will concentrate on readying himself for Australian summer season in 2008.
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 is Adidas and has been for the last seven years. |
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