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Sports Illustrated
June 2, 2004
There is no show in tennis like Marat Safin. He's capable of anything: madness, genius, spontaneous striptease. Last week his persona grew so large that it infected the entire French Open. Defending champions, top seeds and every male U.S. player fell victim to a mesmerizing unpredictability. When, last Thursday, Safin celebrated a wondrous point in his two-day, five-set win over Felix Mantilla by yanking down his shorts, it seemed only fitting. "I don't know why," he said. "I felt like pulling my pants down."
On Saturday night against 202nd-ranked Potito Starace, Safin kept his clothes on but displayed all the other qualities that make him impossible to ignore. The 6'4" Russian ripped sterling backhands, tossed second-serve bombs, flicked forehand passes through nonexistent holes. As usual, he also made things harder than necessary: His hands blistered, and the match became a five-set epic. Safin muttered to his racket, bellowed at the sky. By saving a match point, he sent the crowd into a rapturous chant of "Mar-at! Mar-at!" Then, when he took an injury break after saving a second match point, the fans whistled in rage. An hour later Safin thrust a bloodied fist into the air and walked off the winner. He was booed into the night.
Earlier, after an errant forehand, Safin had summed up his career by screaming, "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" No other player is so bewildering. The funny, handsome Safin is charming one minute, a bully the next. He admits that his U.S. Open win in 2000 retarded his progress: too much too fast, with nearly $ 9 million in income since then. Friends struggle to explain him. "He's a masochist," says his agent, Gerard Tsobanian. "He's like a woman," says Anna Kournikova, who first met him in grade school.
Everyone waits for Safin, who was eliminated on Monday by David Nalbandian, to become the champion he was meant to be. But it may be too late. "This is the way I am," he said. "I can't do anything about it." He could be an all-time great, but he's a slave to paradox. Safin loves himself too much, and not nearly enough.
By Francois Thomazeau
May 31
(Reuters) -
"You should seat a couple of ex-players like (John) McEnroe, (Mats) Wilander, (Yannick) Noah would be good too, to discuss what we can do and start all over again, start from scratch," said Safin after losing 7-5 6-4 6-7 6-3 to Argentina's David Nalbandian.
The Russian's comments followed remarks he made last week after being handed a point penalty for pulling down his shorts during his second-round match against Felix Mantilla.
Furious about the decision, he slammed tennis authorities for penalising entertainers like him.
The former world number one, who also swore at the chair umpire in Spanish during his win against Mantilla, complained about rules banning verbal or racket abuse on court.
"You have not seen the soccer players, we're pretty decent compared to them. NHL, NFL, NBA players are using a lot of good words, good English too," he said.
"Try to do our job and you'll see how you react. You play four hours on court, and you get a penalty point from a person who never touched a racket in his entire life.
"There are a lot of problems inside the (tennis) organisations. Nobody is responsible for anything, basically. And the persons suffering from it are the players.
"There are too many associations, too many different stories. The people upstairs sitting in their office just don't know," Safin added.
"You cannot satisfy all 1,500 tennis players, you should make strong positions."
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