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Why doesn't Safin believe in himself? Haas bags Ginepri; Jankovic shines
FROM THE US OPEN – The ‘00 US Open champion was talking as if he had never won a match in New York, or beaten Roger Federer, or become No. 1, or run over elite player after elite player when his head was in his sport. That man is Marat Safin, who is looking like a very contender again after his 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 win over Ollie Rochus. An exhausted Tommy Haas is his next foe, and he's in Andy Murray and Nicolay Davydenko's quarter. Both those men are extremely competent, but neither is unbeatable. If Marat would just start believing that he could become the tireless, imposing Russian who knocked out Federer and Lleyton Hewitt en route to the ‘05 Aussie Open crown than the top half of the draw would look a lot more competitive, rather than appearing to be in the Swiss' hip pocket. "I got injured quite a lot," he said. "In 2001, I was injured with the ribs, then the wrist, then elbow. I had problems, and then I had problems with the knee. So it's kind of difficult because everybody, like, for example, Federer, he been playing for the last five years without injuries. When I stop and I didn't play for six months, I couldn't really walk straight, you have to start all over again .… The people's opinion everywhere, you should have done that, you should have done that." What he means is that he should have more time to recover, and that he should be cut a lot more slack. He shouldn't be expected to become No. 1 any time soon. That's a reasonable request, but he's been back on tour for seven months now and his results have been little short of awful. He's ranked No. 104 and hasn't been much of a factor anywhere.
Part of that is because he's not moving as well due to his bum left knee, but it's also because he doesn't trust his shots like he should. Even with a five-set win over David Nalbandian and a quick knockout of Rochus, he doesn't know whether he will come to the court confident against Haas. It's very much on the day and when a player is in that mental state, it's nearly impossible to win a Slam. "Right now, I don't know because I haven't been playing well at all. All the summer I came here, especially to get some points, to get my ranking a little bit better. I came here in middle of the July, and what I did is just make one semifinal, and I did nothing in the Masters Series. So it's pretty disappointing for me. But, thank God, I'm doing pretty well here for the moment. Let's see where it will take me." Making comeback after comeback has taken its toll on Safin, but part of that is his fault for not attempting another knee surgery and for not being able to accept up and downs. The guy overplayed for years and, even now, it's hard to get him to take a week off and rest. He's beaten three notable players this year – Davydenko, Gaston Gaudio and James Blake. He's lost to a slow of others non-notables and has also taken three defeats to Fernando Gonzalez. He brought a 17-16 record into the US Open, not a record that a two-time Slam champ should be proud of. “Every time I've been playing well and I was in the Top 10, I had one great year, then I was getting injured and I had to start all over again. I really am tired a little bit of making comebacks. I have to deal with situation. But it's not easy to come back. A lot of people don't understand that once you've been there, you slip out, to come back again, it's very, very difficult. " But Safin is capable of much better and if he can maintain positive attitude - not the 26-year-old’s strong suit - than he could become a Top-10 player again. But when a person is more prone to depressive funks than he is to ebullient highs, he has a tendency worry about his future. He's no Pete Sampras, who only went through two notable down periods in a super productive 13-year-career. He's not even Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who certainly had his lapses in singles, but was far more consistent on a week-to-week basis. He's very hard on himself and his coaches, whom he has run through like errant forehands on a windy day.
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