thanks bmen for talking all that time for the transcript and thanks for the pics.
i really can not wait till the AO starts but i am unsure whther i will be able to see marat's match as Eurosport dont give word of what match they are showing they just pick any. Nonetheless i will only be able to see minimum 50 mins play as i will be off to school
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ANYWAY i found this article posted today !7th (AUstralian day)
Safin aims to take it speedy
WHILE most other Australian Open aspirants were sweating it out in tournaments at either Olympic Park in Sydney or Kooyong last week, Marat Safin was preparing in his own way on the largely dormant courts of Melbourne Park.
Safin played the Hopman Cup in Perth at the start of the month and has not hit a ball in anger since.
"I'm practising, working hard, preparing myself slowly, you know, taking life easy," Safin said by way of explanation.
But while Safin knows that the time for relaxing ends abruptly tonight, when he takes to Rod Laver Arena for his opening match against Serbian teenager Novak Djokovic, he hopes to be still taking things relatively easy - easier than he did last year, at any rate.
There is an old adage in tennis that Grand Slams can only be lost, not won, in the first week. And by the time Safin met Roger Federer in last year's final, he had endured a staggering 22 sets including consecutive five-set marathons against Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi.
Although gracious after his lop-sided defeat to the soon-to-be-crowned world No.1, Safin was the first to admit that his gruelling road to the final had left him in no shape to make a genuine contest of it.
So now, with a relatively injury-free 12 months behind him, Safin hopes to make quicker work of his early matches.
"If I want to maintain myself, to give myself a chance to win the tournament or to just get a little bit closer to the final, I will have to just make my first rounds as fast as I can," Safin said yesterday.
"We will have to see. The other players, they want to win. The guy I'm playing in the first round, he has nothing to lose. He'll be fighting. I don't know what he is going to come up with.
"But of course, if you want to do well, you have to keep it short."
Unfortunately for Safin, brevity has never been a part of his make-up, whether on the court or holding court off it.
For all his immense tennis talents - talents that were most recently on display in last year's Masters Cup final in Houston when he stretched Federer like few players had all year - Safin rarely plays a match without gifting an opponent a look-in at some point.
Last year's tournament is remembered as the start of Safin's career revival after a long battle with injury, but his run could have ended so easily in the third round when he found himself down two sets to one against American Todd Martin.
Banking on Safin's form is as risky as hedging on the Russian rouble - one tends to fluctuate as wildly as the other.
And his first round match is certainly no gimme. Djokovic is only 17 and at 190cm and 75kg, appears as likely to be blown off court by a stiff breeze as he is to put the wind up the towering Russian.
But if Safin has never seen Djokovic play, he has heard enough about the Belgrade-born qualifier to know that good judges have earmarked him as a future top-10 player.
Djokovic is also no stranger to Melbourne Park, having won through to the semi-finals of last year's junior championships.
"He is a young guy, up and coming," Safin said. "He is going to come up with the great shots, great tennis and he is going to go for it.
"But I also know that the first rounds are always tough and if you can manage to pass through them, then life will be a little bit easier."
Takes lots of pics and hopefully get his autograph!! Enjoy! 
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I hope you don't mind, But I've put it on the main website to share with everyone! You can read it here: 
