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Marat Safin Profile |
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Birth Date: January 7, 1980
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Birth Place: Moscow, Russia
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Birth Name: Marat Mikhailovich Safin
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Height: 6'4"
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Biography |
Marat Safin (born January 27, 1980) is a 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, two of professional
tennis' four "Grand Slam" tournaments.
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 professional tennis player Dinara Safina. 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.
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.
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.
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. His clothing and shoe
sponsor is adidas and has been for the last seven years. |
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Other Information |
Russian tennis player. His best ranking was number 1 on the
world.(2000)
He was born in Moscow.
Lives in Monte-Carlo (Monaco)
Has a younger sister, Dinara (also an elite tennis player)
Older brother of Dinara Safina
Coached by former ATP pro Peter Lundgren of Sweden (since
May 2004) who was also the former coach of Roger Federer.
Began playing tennis at age six with his father, Misha,
director of a small tennis club in Moscow, and mother, Rausa
Islanova, who served as her son's coach from ages 6 to 13
A fan of Spartak, Moscow soccer team and NBA star Shaquille
O'Neal
Named ATP Newcomer of Year in 1998 and ATP Most Improved
Player of Year in 2000
Trains part of season in Valencia where he spent most of his
years as a youth (from age 13-19) and works out with several
Spanish players
One of only 7 people to have beaten Roger Federer
Beat Pete Sampras in 2000 at the age of 20 at his first ever
Open, the U.S. Open
Won his second Grand slam title at the Australian Open in
January 2005. He beat Lleyton Hewitt in the final.
Is of the ethnicity - Tatar, a small Muslim ethnic group
residing in the Russian Federation. Is a known Tatar in the
major sports of Russia along with fellow Tatar and Muslim
and soccer phenom Marat Izmailov. |
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