NOT IMPRESSED WITH MASTERS PERFORMANCE
Flaky Safin can't predict his ups and downs
By Alix Ramsay
For tennisreporters.net
Susan Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc. |
From the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai – “My guess is as good as yours how the hell Marat is going to play.”
So said Lleyton Hewitt when faced with the prospect of playing Russia’s sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful but infinitely watchable, top player.
After only two days of competition, the Masters Cup had worked itself up into a frenzy of mathematical permutations. With six matches completed, Carlos Moya had guaranteed his place in the semifinals. That was the easy bit. Everyone else was still in with a chance of reaching the latter stages, although it was not quite that simple. Of the magnificent seven remaining, most could still be sent home even if they won their final round robin match. Of those, Marat Safin had lost to Carlos Moya and Albert Costa but, despite his deeply glum mood, he could still, technically, qualify for the semis.
The thought of ending the year with a huge pay day – the prize fund here is $3.75 million split between eight players – did little for Safin’s frame of mind. “It’s not fair, not fair on the other players,” he muttered. “I’m not good enough to be in the semi finals.”
That is odd seeing as he was good enough to win the Masters Series title in Paris just a matter of days ago, and did so by beating Hewitt in the final. But, then again, nothing is ever straight forward with Safin.
MELBOURNE MELTDOWN SHOWED PROBLEMS
He should have started the year in a blaze of glory. He had waltzed into the final of the Australian Open and found himself standing toe to toe with Thomas Johansson. Surely this was his chance to grab his second Grand Slam title. Surely his power and experience would see him through. Alas, no. Johansson won the day and Safin took yet more flak for being a great but wasted talent.
Most men win a Grand Slam trophy and happily sit back to enjoy the fame, the fortune and their place in history. But since that glorious afternoon in Flushing Meadows two years ago when he minced Pete Sampras in straight sets to claim the US Open title, Safin has been forced to justify his existence. No one doubts his talent but it is what he chooses to do with it that drives his followers to distraction. With his game, he could win on any surface. With his temperament, he can, and frequently does, lose to anyone. And through it all, Safin is expected to explain himself.
Unfortunately, not even Safin knows what is going to happen next. Like any rich, young man, he likes to have a little fun and his favorite hobby appears to be blondes. Still, he is not the first tennis player to be accompanied by a large female entourage. Or, indeed, an entourage of large females. Women have never been a problem for Safin, it is basic belief in himself that has eluded him over the years.
This year was going reasonably well – even if titles were thin on the ground – until he lost in the semifinals of Roland Garros. From there his summer went from bad to worse as he scrabbled around to find any semblance of form and confidence. In desperation and after working with a variety of coaches, friends and advisors, he went back to Alexander Volkov, the man who had guided him towards the US Open back in 2000.
VOLKOV SHINES AS COACH
“After Roland Garros I lost my game, everything. I lost my confidence,” he said. “I couldn’t find my game even in the States. The US Open was terrible, terrible tournament for me. With Volkov, I tried to go back with him and slowly the results came back. I make a couple of quarterfinals – which is unbelievably big for me at that time because of the way I was playing – I make one semifinal in Moscow and then I won the tournament in Paris which is really good. But I expect more of this year.”
His admiration for Volkov knows no bounds. Safin maybe a wayward talent, but he knows his faults. And he knows that Volkov knows them, too. “With Volkov, I had my best tennis,” Safin said. “He has his own view of tennis.” He also knows harness Safin’s energies and point them in the right direction.
Susan Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc. |
“For me to play well, I have to find the motivation, to be hungry,” Safin said. “You want to play tennis and you want to enjoy it. Sometimes I’m not enjoying the tennis on tour because you are traveling for 11 months of the year and everyday it’s the same thing: practice, practice, practice. On the court you see balls and racquets and you just get tired. That’s why I’m not so 100 per cent living with tennis because otherwise I would not even stay for one year on tour. To find the motivation to play tennis and to play good tennis I need to have a life outside of tennis, find some other interest in life and don’t make such a big deal out of tennis. It’s your job which you like but the more motivation you have, the more you’re going to like it.”
He thought that motivation would come from the Grand Slam events – and then he realized that he was now expected to win them. “You cannot play great tennis with the pressure,” he said. “It’s difficult. Every time you go out on the court already you are thinking: “I have to win this match.” Nobody has to win this match. You can win this match, you can lose this match – it’s 50-50. It depends how you good you are going to play and how the other guy is going to play.”
There is always the possibility that the Davis Cup final might lift his mood, but even that is not sounding too promising. “This year is finished,” he said. “I have no chance to do any good here in Shanghai. The Davis Cup is the last hope for me.”
That said, the big man is not quite as daft as he sometimes leads us to believe. He makes a great deal of money from play tennis and tennis is, after all, only a game. Winning is good but losing is not the end of the world. “It’s like a normal person has bad days and good days,” he said. “This week I had two bad days in a row. It happens. But what? I have to shoot myself? I have to cry? I have to shout? To pray? No, you just have to work a little bit on that subject so next time I’ll be a little bit better.”
And thanks to a precocious talent and vagaries of the Masters Cup qualification process, he may be in China a little while longer. Like Lleyton says – with Marat, who knows?
Alix Ramsay has been covering tennis for British national newspapers
for the past 12 years. She was tennis correspondent of The Times
for three years.
