Marat Safin isn't ashamed of the fact that he breaks so many rackets. He justifies it, saying he needs to let off steam. And most of his growing army of fans will forgive the smouldering Russian, who in this exclusive inteview tells Dominic Bliss: "I'm popular."

Marat Safin smashes more rackets than any other player on the circuit. By his own conservative estimate he reckons he's destroyed over 150 of them in his life time. "And I only started smashing them three years ago," he says with a chuckle. "I cannnot play quiet. I need to shout and throw the racket around. Otherwise I get too nervous. I don't really care if the spectators like it. If they do then that's great, but if they don't like it then what can I do? That's just me. If they can't except it, then don't come to see my matches. I'm not going to retire because of this."

Ace met up with Marat in Milan, the new venue for the indoor winter tournament that used to be held in London. He had just finished practising at a nearby health and racket club where a particularly violent bout of racket smashing had resulted in a worryingly large rip in the bubble covering of the court and a rather hefty bill for the Russian No. 1.
It sounds like reckless behaviour, but if rampant destruction of sports equipment helps you concentrate and you've already earned over £3 million during your young career, then in the grand scheme of things it's a very small price to pay.
Besides, broken rackets are all part of the personality that is Marat Safin and. as everyone keeps telling us, the ATP needs all the personalities it can get.

"Tennis is like a kind of show," says Marat in his distinctive Muscovite accent. "You have to make the people happy and hopefully they go home happy. You have to do everything that is possible to satisfy them. This is my job. It's part of the show. The people that come to tennis know what they want. They want tennis. Of course they don't want to see robots, but they want to see some emotion, some nice matches, some nice points."

So Marat's aware that he needs to be more than just a tennis player. He needs to be an entertainer, too. On the other hand, he's realistic about just how much he and his fellow players can entertain without losing sight of their tennis. "I am not a singer or a rock star," he reminds us. "Tennis is tennis. If you want to see a clown, go to a circus."

Of all the good looking young faces in the ATP's 'New Balls Please' player publicity drive, Marat Safin stands out the most. He's one of the tallest (6ft 4ins), he's the one who's been No.1 in the world and he's the one who overwhelmed Pete Sampras to win the US Open last year.

Marat is quite content to be the player who spearheads this publicity campaign. "If the ATP don't promote the new guys then nobody will know us around the world and the people will not come to the matches," he argues. "They know only Sampras, Agassi and Becker, but they don't know the new guys."
The problem is that nowadays there is so much depth in the men's game. Ten years ago there was just a small group of player/personalities who were consistently making off with all the major titles. Nowadays that group is so much bigger.
"Now everyone in the top 30 can play great tennis," says Marat. "Every match is bigger because everybody now has the potential to be No.1 and beat the guys that are in the world top 10."

Marat himself is one of those players who has usurped the giants at the top of the sport. His performance in the US Open final last year was phenomenal. His ruthless passing shots , rock solid serving and blistering service returns all combined to humble Sampras into straight sets submission.
Many observers suggested that Sampras's loss in that final was the turning pont in his career. The beginning of the end, even. Indeed, Pistol Pete had by then already become the only man to win 13 Grand Slam titles, and the only man to finish the year with a No.1 world ranking for five successive years. Plus he had married a beautiful actress and amassed more than £27 million in career prize money alone. Let's face it. There isn't alot left to motivate the man.

But Marat doesn't think the sun is setting on Sampras's career quite just yet. "It's not the end," he says respectfully. " He can play great tennis and win a few more Grand Slams for sure. If he wants to play a few years more he can. Our match (at the US Open) was just one where he didn't play very well and I played unbelievable tennis. Sampras is the best tennis player in the world and no-one is ever going to be better than him. Never!"

One of the things Marat respects most about the mighty Sampras was his ability to remain at the world No.1 spot for so long, longer than any other player in history, in fact. "That is the most difficult part," he admits. "To get there is difficult enough, but you can make it if you really try. But to stay up there for a few years...that's the really difficult part. There is so much pressure and there are too many things you have to sacrifice to be there. Your social life suffers. It's hard to have a private life because there is too much attention on you. Every tournament that you play you have to play 100 per cent. I play more from the baseline, so I expend more energy and for me it's difficult to play every tournament 100 per cent."

Marat knows that it is mental strength more than physical strength that you need to stay at the top. And he reckons the only way to get this mental strength is to teach it to yourself. "You have to understand it by yourself," he explains. "You are not born with it. Nobody can teach you this. It comes with time and experience. Over the years you pass through all these tournaments - satellites and challengers - and you get more and more experience each year. You learn mental strength by yourself and you slowly understand better."

There is an element of arrogance required, too. In fact, more like big healthy doses of the stuff. Marat has just turned 21, but when you meet him you'd be forgiven for thinking he was older. Not because of his looks (his face has no weather lines across it yet, and he still bears the downy facia; hair and odd pimple of adolescense) but because of the unmistakeable air of superciliousness that he has.

It's probably not concious, but he seems to look down on you with an air of superiority. This, of course, is invaluable when it comes to psyching out opponents. But off court it makes him seem rather like a know-all.
Maybe he does know all. He certainly has it all. Since he turned professional in 1997 he has won eight titles (one of them a Grand Slam), reached 11 ATP finals and amassed a total of £3 million in prize money, not to mention the endorsement deals and sponsorship contracts that keep falling on the doormat of his rather nice apartment in Monte Carlo.

He is also more than a tad popular with the ladies. Asked about his girlfriend (it was widely reported that he used to go out with a Spanish woman called Sylvia), he hesitates before saying "Don't put her in," and then he tries to change the subject. Afterwards, when we accompanied Marat to the players' party at a Milanese nightclub, it turns out his caginess about revealing the name of his paramour stems from the fact that he can't quite make up his mind. He is, as they say, spoilt for choice.
Marat was born in Moscow in 1980 to father Mikhail ans mother Rausa Islanova, a tennis coach. He has one sibling,a 15-year-old sister, Dinara Safina, who reached the final of the French Open junior doubles last year.

He attended school locally ("It was called '277'; all Moscowschools are just known by their numbers") and says he was just an average student. "I wasn't a genius and I wasn't stupid. I was okay. I was a normal guy. sometimes I cheated in exams. We all do."

At the age of six he picked up tennis at his father's club. "It was very difficult," he remembers. "We had no rackets, no balls, nothing. It was very difficult to play tennis in these conditions, so that's why everybody ha to move."
When he was 14, Marat left Russia and relocated to a tennis academy in Valencia in Spain to take advantage of the infinately better facilities there.
"It was hard, very hard," he recalls. "Idid not know anyone and could not speak the language, but it taught me many things and is probably why I have got what I have today."

Nowadays, like many tax-dodging tennis professionals, his official residence is Monte carlo, but he still professes to love Moscow more than anywhere else.
"It's the atmosphere," he says. "That's my place and everyone has their place. I was born in Moscow and that is the place I am going to live the rest of my life. When I retire of course i will go back. The best-looking girls live in Russia. It's true."
One thing that really annoys Marat is the way that, in the West, everyone thinks Moscow is riddled with mafia violence and organised crime. "Many people don't have any idea what is going on in Russia," he says, suddenly getting animated. "It pisses me off when someone gives me their opinion about Russian crime. They don't know. They've never been there. They've seen one minute of news on CNN and then they think that the mafia are killing people in the street and it's not true.
"Places like the Bronx or Queens (in New York) are worse. Moscow isn't even close. Of course some people get shot by accident, but nobody is getting killed in the street. There is not a war."

Marat only visit Moscow a few times a year ("It's difficult because all the time we travel alot") and when he does he stays at his parents' house. But when he's there, despite his rapidly growing superstar status, he never feels the need for a bodyguard. "I don't need anybody," he states confidently, with a reassuring wink. "I will never have any problems. I have enough friends." But secretly you can't help wondering how a man worth millions of dollars who is in the Russian news every day, manages to remain so resolutely fearless. Other Russian sportspeople have not been so lucky.
A plethora of ice hockey players have been stabbed and beated in extortion attempts, while several officials from both football and ice hockey have been murdered.

Marat may manage to stay one step ahead of the mafia, but he does attract attention from his fans. "Some of the attention is not good because I also like to be alone," he says, echoing what many famous tennis stars feel. "In Moscow people come up to me in restaurants and ask for my autograph. It's no problem. It's part of the job. I'm popular."

If, as he hopes, he can help win the Davis Cup for russia this year, he will become even more popular; a national hero even. "I would like us to have a draw like Spain did last year because they had every match at home," he says. "If we had the same draw nobody could have beaten us. You put us on clay and nobody will have the chance to beat us. Yevgeny (Kafelnikov) plays unbelievable tennis. Me, I can play. If we want to win, we win. We will have our year. We will win it."
With such confidence, coupled with his natural arrogance, you really have to believe him.