Flushing Meadows... ... We'll be back...

[tall_one]

Teresa said:

But I sincerely don't think that Marat would be happy with some of the posts I have seen because he is prone to outbursts of frustration himself, or 'screaming type of personality' as Nicki said LOL

I didn't say he would be happy, I said that i hoped he would understand.

[tall_one]

There is a video that has Marat in it on Eurosport, here is the link, it is called Crash, Bang, Wallop! and Marat's part starts about 1:43 into it

www.eurosport.com/home/pages/V4/L0/multimedia_Lng0.shtml

[sirius]

so...ppl who now need their own threads include....

VASS (who already has one)
RUTH
NICKI...

great words dears....... not the kinda thing i'd be able to say....

[Elisabeth]

thank you for the link tall_one....
Marat speaks with a lot of sadness.....

[Damita]

First i would say i love what you wrote Nicki and Ruth!!

Then, as i'm a masochist, i've bought the newspaper to see what they would say about that. they're not as harsh as i thought they would be, but they're very pessimistic about his career don't read if you're not in the mood for it.
There's also an extract of his interview. The part i put in orange is what he really said, the rest is what i translated from french into english, so not the words he used!

Atricle from french newspaper L'Equipe, wed. 1st, september, by Philippe Bouin

[glow=red,2,300]A MENTAL AGE PROBLEM[/glow]

Marat Safin, 24, is overcome by doubts. Todd Martin, 34, retires, but Andre Agassi, also 34, is still at large.

First surprise in the men’s draw: Marat Safin has been ousted by Thomas Enqvist. After the retirement of Todd Martin, defeated by Fabrice Santoro, Andre Agassi remains the last American survivor of the blessed generation. Tim Henman survived Ivo Karlovic’s bombing, while Paul-Henri Mathieu has won his first match in a Grand Slam in 2 years.
(…)

[glow=red,2,300]“Marasmus” Safin[/glow]

Marat Safin is only 24 years old but his first and only victory in a Grand Slam, at US Open 2000, seems to be an old souvenir. After 2 years rotten by the fact he’s been injured and he went overboard, he’s still looking for the shape that permitted him to be set up as the most talented player in the game before the advent of Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Yesterday he lost in 4 sets (6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6) to another thirty-year-old player, Swedish Thomas Enqvist, who shares with Safin a huge strike force and also the pleasure of having played the final of the Australian Open. Lost at the 59th rank because of a series of injuries, the Swedish had won no match since Wimbledon but Safin quickly allowed him to feel confident. Marat served for the first set at 5-4 and at 6-5, but was unable to finish it, and let Enqvist get his breath back and take fresh heart.

Marat Safin put on a spurt in the 3rd set, boosted by the 3 double faults Enqvist made (despite he used to lead 3-1). But it seems like he was sinking at the end. Slow, heavy, as if his coach’s weight inflation was contagious, he never succeeded in playing a consistent tennis. Annoyed by the wind which was dispelling the humidity of the previous day, Safin was constantly playing the wrong shot at the wrong moment, attacking wrong balls, placing the ball near the lines too soon thus allowing easy counterattacks from Enqvist. In brief, he fell apart. He even couldn’t break his racket when he tried to! He has left the blessed years of innocence when doubt did not exist. He seems to plunge into an ocean of uncertainties. Marat sinks in marasmus.


New York_ Since his failure in the Australian Open final, Marat Safin has accumulated disappointments. His premature exit against Enqvist tends to confirm an early mental wearing out.

[glow=red,2,300]“I FEEL BAD”[/glow]
Marat Safin has admitted he’s lacking confidence.

- Marat, what’s your feeling after this loss?
I have to admit that I am terribly disappointed. I really am. I had a lot of expectations for the tournament. I feel bad, yeah. To be honest, I'm feeling not really happy with myself. But it's already past, so I cannot change it. I have to see what’s positive in it.

- According to you, was this defeat your fault or Enqvist fault?
If I would lie to myself, I would say it's Thomas' fault. But I don't want to lie to myself. A huge part of it is my fault, because I let him play well. He took the chance I gave him and he’s experimented enough to use it.

- You say it’s your fault but on what level?
The level of confidence! The best result I made during the American tour is a quarterfinal in Cincinnati. That’s not enough to arrive at the US Open and to hope you’ll beat a guy like Enqvist in the first round. I've not got enough confidence to beat these guys at the moment, coming to a tournament like this without any confidence is a little bit toug.

- Nonetheless some ex-winners of this tournament say that at the very moment they see the stadium, in the distance, when they come to New York, they are instantaneously transcended…
I don’t get what they mean! (he bursts out laughing) Maybe they even don’t know themselves…Anyway I have another point of view. It’s true that this victory in 2000 has changed my life, but it’s not a reason to climb up the curtains every time I see Flushing Meadows in the distance!

- Maybe you lost because you don’t show your emotions on court anymore?
(pretending he’s angry) First of all, whenever I try to show emotions, nobody likes it. When I don’t show emotions, nobody likes it. What the hell do you want me to do? Whenever I show emotions, everybody is criticizing me and complaining like ‘Why do you break so many racquets? Why you shout?’ Whenever I try to be calm, I try to be concentrated, is not good enough. So tell me how I should be please?

[Damita]

Teresa>> i've read several articles saying that Ferrero was still weak because of the chicken pox. He's not ill anymore of course, but he's in pour health because of it and because of injuries. It's normal since he was ill at the beginning of this year.
Marat was injured last year. He did had trouble to come back last year in the few tournaments he attended after USO. But i think this year he's ok, i really don't think the problem has anything to do with his body, he seems ok physically. Like he says himself, the problem has to do with confidence....

another extract from article found on the internet:
(The Journal News, article by Janet Paskin)

Safin hardly musters a fight
Watching No. 13 Marat Safin face reporters after his opening-round loss to unseeded Thomas Enqvist yesterday, it seemed the Russian had done something far more serious than simply lose a tennis match.

What's wrong with you, they wanted to know. Why can't you compete? What would you say to your fans?

"What can I say to myself?" Safin responded. "What can I say to most of the fans? I don't know."

[me]

thanks for the interview bits Damita, nice to finally know what the journo's were asking!

In brief, he fell apart. He even couldn’t break his racket when he tried to! He has left the blessed years of innocence when doubt did not exist. He seems to plunge into an ocean of uncertainties. Marat sinks in marasmus.

Ow wow, that sounds so sad, so depressing!

[Teresa]

tall_one said:

I didn't say he would be happy, I said that i hoped he would understand.

Nicki
Sorry, for the misquote.
You could be right, maybe he would understand,
ermmmh........have to wonder, its kinda hard to understand why people who profess to support you
come win or lose, through the ups and downs can be so harsh, brutal and hurtful in their criticism of you.

So when the junos appear (at least to me) to echo the words of Marat's fans, and the fans appear to echo the words of the juno's, its getting painfully obvious to me that such venting must be normal thinking, and acceptable when done amongst friends or in the tabloids, so I will exclude myself from further comment ;D

[MariaV]

Thanks for the huge work Damita! We are kind of masochists,aren't we.

[Neo]

Ruth said:

A little bit of 'insider info' on Marat post-match - he was thoroughly upset (surprise surprise ) and he and Amit seemed to be having a long & private heart-to-heart in the hotel room. I guess there was lots of soul-baring and possibly a few tears too

Ooohhh, man, that SUCKS....!!!!!!!

Ruth said:

More than anything, I was told Marat needed 'cheering up' from the fans. I think I'd forgotten, Marat can be his own harshest critic and it sounds like he may be really punishing himself for the loss last night

I'm pretty sure Marat & co are aware of the degree of his fans frustration and loss of faith/hope.

Marat, Marat... what ever will we do with U, huh? ;D
Cheer up, mate, it's not the end of the world!

Ruth said:

He needs true fans now, more than ever - maybe even more than during his injury.

Well... he has them... ;D ;D ;D



P.S. On a funnier note... the whole 'punishing himself' thing makes me wonder if our dear boy is into...S&M... maybe... ;D..... Okay, okay, I'll stop... But now, seriously, Ruth, what exactly does that mean... he's punishing himself (I just love saying that ;D ) by doing what...? I hope he's not doing anything... stupid.

[tall_one]

sorry, this one is even longer than the 1st one

Teresa said:

... its kinda hard to understand why people who profess to support you
come win or lose, through the ups and downs can be so harsh, brutal and hurtful in their criticism of you.

I think the reason so many of are so hard on Marat is because we live through him far more than we should.

When he wins we are ecstatic, jumping up and down yelling in joy, smiling the rest of the day. Did we win the match, no but our Marat did. We are nearly as happy with the win as he is, but the opposite is true also.

When Marat loses, we become a melancholy group, lashing out at others and arguing about nothing. We, like Marat, take some loses far too hard. People don't like to feeling depressed and angry and some tend to lash out at the thing/person that made them that way. Since it was Marat who lost the match, it becomes his fault that we are in a bad mood. Is it his fault? of course not, we are the ones who choose to follow him, we are the ones who let a silly little game played by a man that half of us have never met affect us far too much.

I watched a lot of fans come and go over the past few years and I've watched the diehard fans deal with a lot of ups and downs. The past couple of years have been hard on Safin fans, what little joys we’ve had have been small and most of them tainted. We watched him battle though the Aussie Open this year, only to lose. We followed him as he went through the Estoril draw this year, only to lose in the final. At Roland Garros our hope once again returned, only to be dashed by a handful of blisters. In 2003 we only had one small joy, the Barcelona tournament, but that was tainted by Marat’s retirement in the final. 2002 had had a few bright points, but loses late in the tourneys of Hamburg, Roland Garros and the Aussie Open dimmed our joy.

At the end of 2002 we had the joy of him winning TMS Paris followed by a forgettable TMS final, followed by the joy of Russia winning the Davis Cup. That was the last time we were allowed to be happy, untainted by anything. There was no "Marat did well, but..."

It was just Marat did well.


Fans need that periodically. We need time when we can just celebrate without any buts, without any disappointment. We haven’t had that in almost 2 years. If this lose had happened in 2002 or 2003 I don’t think people would have reacted as badly to it as they did the past couple of days. We had recent wins to remind ourselves of, we could tell ourselves that Marat is still young, he has time to turn things around. But Marat is no longer young (at least not in tennis years) and there is no recent win to look back on, heck some of the people reading this might not have seen Marat win a tourney. It is hard to keep making excuses.

It is hard to read everyone rants and hopefully Marat isn’t reading any of them, but until he wins a tourney I do not expect them to stop. Some people have taken them too far, of course, some of them had made me raise my eyebrows and hope that they would be delete even as I knew that they wouldn’t be. If you don’t like what they are saying then don’t go to Safinator and read them. I would also encourage any of you to sit down and write Marat a letter. Tell him that you do believe in him and that you will stick by him no matter what. Individual letters can be very powerful and it may be just what Marat needs to contradict all this negativity.

Okay, I’ll shut up now, I’m sure half of you are bored to tears by now

oh and if and of you want to write Marat here is the address:
Marat Safin
c/o Elite Management
31 Avenue Princesse Grace
Monte Carlo 98000 Monaco
FRANCE

[Dee]

Thanks tallone. I thought it was great what you said. I do agree that some of the posts on safinator were harsh, but there are many warm, funny and dedicated posters there, who just feel so sad for marat.

i'm sure Marat will regain his confidence and will show us the awesome spectacle that is his game in full flow, I'm certain he'll be making us laugh at his antics once more ;D

[Myke]

I love this board. The REAL supporters spent their time here. A lot of people on Safinator seem to know everything about tennis and they would be very succesfull when they'd be in Marat's shoes. (sarcasm, sarcasm!)
You comment on one thing on Safinator and they practicly attack you. They can give their opinion but when you give yours...how dare you? I just commented back on someone, I promised myself I'd keep it with that.

Remind me not to go there anymore and be tempted to react again

[Magda]

Thanks Damita for everything you posted.

Damita said:

What's wrong with you, they wanted to know. Why can't you compete? What would you say to your fans?

"What can I say to myself?" Safin responded. "What can I say to most of the fans? I don't know."

Marat don't worry, you don't have to say anything

and now an important question: WHY IS THERE STILL NO THREAD FOR NICKI??!!! Girl I have water in my eyes again . and I'm serious.

[Nélia]

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