What a wonderful tie that Russia and Germany gave us today. Marat your match against Tommy was a tough one.

Yes it was too difficult, he was too good today. I made him a lot of presents, for Christmas. But he is really playing really good tennis; he will hopefully keep it up this week and this year. All the best because he was injured for a long time, so for him it is very important to come back and to come back this way. So all the best.

And you only arrived late yesterday so was it difficult for you to play a long match?

Yes it is a good excuse actually. I played my best. Unfortunately he was much stronger than me and I almost fell down a couple of times. I had no power but I was fighting

And the reason you were late was that you were receiving a special award back home in Russia. Can you tell us a little about that?

Most of it is just because of our Mayor, he is investing a lot of money to bring the tennis a little bit higher. We have a lot of girls playing good tennis. We have five in the top 10 and there is no guys any more so we need some money for that to be able to build good facilities and to built a good federation, to have really good coaches to be able to have good players.

Thanks Marat.

Media Conference
Hopman Cup Transcript - Safin, Myskina
3 January 2005

Marat any concerns about the slow start to the year?

(Marat) It is normal because, I have just finished my year and it is difficult to continue to play the same level because I ha some time off and I was working on my fitness. It is normal. The legs haven’t adjusted to the game. It is going to take me a while to get back. Another week. So I will do ok for the Australian Open.

Does this tournament give you..

(Marat) but I am playing well. I am not complaining, I’m playing well I am hitting the ball well. Peter is satisfied with the way I am playing.

Are you confident that you can do well at the Australian Open? As Australia is the place where you got your run back into the top ten. Does that give you the confidence coming back here?

(Marat) Why not? I mean there is everybody starting from the first round. Hopefully I will have the first round, a little bit easier than the other people. But it will give me a little more confidence when I get back and win a couple of matches. But I’m pretty confident. I’m very confident of playing well. Win a couple of matches and then everything is going under control.

What do you think brought back your good form last year? What good things in 2004 would you keep continuing this year?

(Marat) Just, winning matches. The thing that makes you play well and feel good, is being on the court and winning matches. That is what I was looking for. I went a little bit down hill in the middle of the season but then I caught up by winning a tournament in Beijing and then from there I just started to play well and winning matches and then at the end of the year I was playing great tennis. It was probably one of my best years. I was in my best shape.

Marat when you have a downhill part of the year like you had last year, do you know why? After you go away and think about it. Do you know why it happened? or you…

(Marat) Of course, everybody knows why. Because I was winning matches and because you lose a couple of matches that you weren’t expecting to lose and then you lose your confidence. You cannot the get motivation to fight back. I took one month off because I felt really burnt out from playing so many tournaments. All of a sudden you get left out of draws in Toronto, Cincinnati I lost to Hewitt and 7-6 in the third. Then of course in New York it was a disaster. But yeah it is just matches. If you are missing matches you lose confidence. You lose to the people that you weren’t expected to lose to. It makes it harder.

Marat, why do you think you play so well at the Australian Open? Is it the surface? Or…

(Marat)I like the surface. Because it is not really fast, it bounces really high and for some reason I feel very comfortable playing here. I love to play on Vodafone and on Centre Court because it is not so windy. The court just suits me and I feel comfortable.

Lleyton Hewitt says that it is not quick enough. What do you think?

(Marat) Yeah, but you have to look at the fact that we have a completely different game. The way he plays is just completely opposite to what I am doing. For me it is that I like it when it bounces high, and when it is not so fast, so it suits me. But he probably likes to have it a little bit faster.

Do you think the majority of players like the speed of the court?

Nobody is complaining. It is 50- 50. Give us 50 players and they would love it and 50 players they would not like this surface, but at the end of the day there are certain surfaces that you have to play. We have the same thing in Russia. The surfaces, they don’t really feel too comfortable to play on, but I have to play on them.

Do you think it is a fair surface for every type of player?

(Marat) Yes I think so. There is, here, which is a little bit slower but bounces very high, then we have the French Open which is clay then Wimbledon which is fast and low and then we have the US Open which is fast hard court. So basically you have all different types of courts. So if you don’t like the Australian Open, you must like the US Open because it is a little bit fast and bounces a little bit lower. If you really want to be fast then you can go to Wimbledon. But if you want it really slow then you go to the French Open. It is different for everybody.

Do you think that what separates the good players from the great players is how they adapt to different surfaces?

(Marat) Look at me I can’t adjust myself to Wimbledon. Not good enough. No, it just depends on every person and every game and every type of the game. Who it suits and doesn’t suit, no matter how much time you spend on court, no matter how many hours, how many days, how many years they try to play on that surface, if it doesn’t fit you then it doesn’t fit you. And I really feel like Wimbledon is a little bit too difficult for me.

Will you skip it this year?

(Marat) No I will have to play. Maybe I will have a good draw. I might play against one of the clay court players like Gaudio, and maybe I will myself in the quarter-finals all of a sudden. You never know.

Normally you play better when you get a tough draw…

(Marat) Yeah but I don’t get to he tough part of the draw, to play against the top, because they are seeded, so I don’t even get to the third round, to the second round.

Do you help each other out with the pressure? Do you try to help your fellow country women?

(Marat) Women solidarity. (Anastasia) No not really. We have our own team. I have my team, Sharapova has her team. I don’t think we help each other out. It helps us play better because I know they want to play better than me so I want to play better than them.

Are you more competitive against another Russian than you might be against a French woman?

I think it is normal yes.

Marat, how about the media coverage of tennis in Russia? You are here seeded at number one but we don’t see Russian journalists here. Last year you went to the Final of the Australian open and we didn’t see too many journalists. How is the media coverage…

(Marat) Through the internet. (Anastasia) Oh it is pretty good (Marat) They have enough with the internet. They are showing all the matches, on T.V. so they don’t really need to fly to Australia to see me live. They can see me live in Moscow.

Television is ok…

(Marat) but to ask me question “how do you feel after the match?, how did you play?, how did you feel before hand?, did you move well?” these kind of question… (Anastasia) You write, they read, they write again. It goes around.

Are the Russian men jealous of the success of the Russian women?

(Marat) We are more than happy. I am really happy for them because it is such a break through because for a long time they didn’t have really good tennis girls. Now we can be proud of them wining Grand Slams. They are really doing well. They have five girls in the top ten. That is pretty good. I hope it will give a lot of motivation for men’s players to achieve the same level. But for some reason we really don’t have anybody from the juniors or 16’s. Nobody is coming up so we are in trouble. So they have to show the guys how to do it.

Have you got an explanation as to why there are no guys coming up?

(Marat) Because our competitions is a little more difficult. To be honest playing is more difficult. It is more powerful, it takes more of the person to become a great tennis player on the men’s tennis tour. Without taking any credit from the women. Of course not. It takes an extra something to become good. Of course like in every country there is a lot of talented players, but they don’t have this special something to break through and to have the motivation to achieve something in their lives because they are starting to be comfortable with the level they are doing. They are not hungry enough to get where they should be. A lot of people have a break in the middle on the way. Sometimes when it comes too easy they are not hungry enough. Also you have to look at the fact that we don’t have so many tournaments around, so the competition is not very good. Like for example compared to Spain. They have competitions, challengers. For me they are incredible. What I see from the Spanish is that they great schools and base and they bring out new players every year. It is amazing.