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QUESTION: Marat, what sort of surface speed do you like the Rebound Ace? The speed of the surface, do you like it quicker or a little bit slower?
MARAT SAFIN: It doesn't matter, because the kick serves and the fast ones, if you change it and mix up your serves, it's working pretty well.

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QUESTION: Marat, if I could ask you a similar question as I asked Roger before about Lleyton Hewitt: despite his calf injury and his troubles leading into the Open, do you still see him as a major danger?
MARAT SAFIN: Yes, of course. He has a lot of experience, he won two Grand Slams, and he's been in the final with all of us a couple of times, each one of us. So he's definitely one of the dangers, if he can get over the injury.

QUESTION: Could you describe your preparation to regain the title?
MARAT SAFIN: Pardon?

QUESTION: Marat, could you describe your preparation and your hunger to regain the title from Roger?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's going to be tough, after last year, it's going to be really tough. And hopefully I can get through the first two rounds, and then we'll see.

QUESTION: Marat, I want to ask you a question about Boris Yeltsin. (Laughter) Do you notice him when you're in a Davis Cup final, when he flaps his arms around? He does a lot of pretty unusual things.
MARAT SAFIN: Probably we don't see him, but we're aware that he's there.

QUESTION: Does he have any effect on the way you approach the game?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, we try to keep him as less nervous as we can.

QUESTION: Marat, how did you feel last January, when you obviously would have liked to be here defending the title?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I was trying to recover from my injury, I had a very bad injury and I've been running with the machine and watching all of these guys playing here, and was missing really the feeling to be here and being part of this game. So pretty tough.

QUESTION: This summer, or rather your winter, because you had a late start, were you able to do different work over this Christmas break than what you usually do?
MARAT SAFIN: Yes, yes, but we finished the year pretty late, me and (inaudible), so we didn't have really a vacation. And straight away, straight after we went to practise, making three weeks of preparations. So it's a pretty different approach to the Australian Open, but I hope it will work.

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JASON DUNSTALL: Marat, you have got Alexander Volkov working with you; how he has influenced your game?
MARAT SAFIN: I found myself in a pretty bad situation last year, I didn't win any matches, and I have been pretty down. My coach has been with me for a long time and I have been playing for 10 years, so I needed actually a change, a big change, and I asked him to travel a little bit with me to help me for a couple of months, because he had nothing to do in Moscow, so I offered him a few trips, a little bit of cash. And it worked, you know -- full hospitality. And it worked, and also for this year. Of course, he won't be able to travel full time, which is pretty good, because otherwise we can get tired from each other and I don't want to have this kind of problem with the coach. And he's going to come definitely to the most important tournaments, the Masters Series and Grand Slams and a few others, and hopefully it will work because it worked for that few months of the season. So basically I came back from 104 to 26 in the world. 80 spots in three months is pretty good actually. So I'm going to work with him.