Sydney Morning Herald
13jan07
Safin: Regrets? I travel the world with beautiful women making a fortuneDon't be fooled by Marat Safin's infamous mood swings, the big Muscovite likes his life just the way it is, writes Linda Pearce.
Other related coverageAS MARAT Safin's moods go, and the Russian can be a miserable glass-half-empty type, this appears to be a good one. Not long after losing his Kooyong Classic exhibition match to Roger Federer, Safin leads the way into the player lounge wearing cheerful floral shorts that match what is not always such a sunny demeanour.
Federer wanders into the room through another door a few minutes later, and the rapport between the winners of the past two Australian Open titles is obvious. Federer happens to walk within earshot just as the Herald is asking which player, when both are playing at their very best, would win what for many is the dream match-up - at least on hardcourts - in the men's game.
"Yeah, him," Federer calls out with a smile. "Of course, me," replies a beaming Safin with obviously false bravado. Then, as Federer retreats, the Russian's tone lowers a little, respectfully.
"Roger is definitely a different level from all other players and he has all the tools, all the qualities, he doesn't miss anything on the court, great movement, great eye, great forehand, backhand, perfect technique, so it is difficult to compete against him. That is why the past two years he has been No.1 in the world and nobody can take him down."
Yet Safin did, two years ago, saving a match point in a breathtaking semi-final when Federer was No.1 and seemingly on his way to a second consecutive Australian Open title. Other than Safin, no one besides Rafael Nadal - who has underlined his mastery on clay for the past two years at the French Open - has beaten the great Swiss in a slam since Roland Garros in mid-2004.
Indeed, imagine the injury-prone Russian with the attitude of a Nadal, as Safin's friend Dmitry Tursunov has done, and you picture an almost unstoppable force. Such a big, powerful, baseline game driven by such dedication and single-mindedness. As Tursunov said last year: "If [Safin] had Nadal's focus and tunnel vision about tennis, yeah, he'd be No.1."
And yet, for Safin, that thought gives him as much pleasure as the prospect of ripping out his fingernails, one by one. The 26-year-old, who has squeezed in two grand slam titles and a stint at No.1 between years of fast living, racquet-smashing and brain explosions, can imagine few worse fates. Indeed, if Safin approached tennis like Nadal does, he believes he would be long retired.
The sport has been the biggest thing in his life, bought him his first Ferrari at the age of 20 in what even then was a five-car garage in Valencia, is paying for the new apartment in Moscow he hopes will be finished "before I have grandkids", has financed his party lifestyle and helped entertain scores of glamorous women. And none of it he would change, not for a second.
To approach tennis like Nadal, even for all the extra achievements that might have brought?
Not Safin. Not ever.
"Well, I would quit, because I would get bored," he says. "I don't think I would like to have the life of Nadal, and Nadal maybe doesn't like my lifestyle, but I would definitely not change my lifestyle for anything, even to be No.1 in the world for many years.
"I just want to live like a normal person. I don't want to be as - how you call it? - tunnel-vision. I would not enjoy it. Unfortunately for my mind, I could never do that. I never did it. It's not me."
Safin knows that to retire with just two majors amid the 15 titles he has accumulated so far would be seen by many as an underachievement for one with his talents. He says, rather unambitiously, that his aim is to win another five tournaments before he retires, while not appearing overly confident of adding to his 2000 US Open crown and the Australian Open of 2005.
As to whether history would judge two slams as having done justice to his ability, he shrugs. "It could have been better, could have been worse, so I don't know if I would do some things different if it would never click in my life and I would not become a tennis player - or also, another side, I could maybe be a bit better. You never know.
"But I am where I am, I am happy and I am really thankful for the life that I have. I would never change for anything in this life."
Recent reports of Safin's supposed retirement in 2010 have, he claims, been greatly exaggerated. He recounts being asked by a journalist when he expected to retire, and replying that he would continue until 2010 and then reassess.
"Why not? In 2010 I will be 30, and if I feel that I am in the mood and I still have some drive, I will stay. If I don't feel it anymore, or something gonna happen, something will come up, I will stop."
Not that Safin plans to exit tennis altogether, for he would like to stay involved in the sport that is booming in his homeland, then compete on the senior tour for over-35s. That is not so much about the money, but the fitness, for he intends to keep in shape and delay the weight gain that comes with inactivity, he says, "after a certain age".
After two serious injuries, as well as regular - and often inexplicable - rides on the results roller-coaster, Safin remains a compelling yet enigmatic character, the self-described "yo-yo from Moscow" who has also likened himself to the stockmarket - where there are good days and bad, but always the chance of a recovery.
He insists he craves a "normal" life, and thus does not expect to have children until after tennis, when there is less travel.
"First I have to find the right woman," he says. "The right woman needs to understand how to be supportive and understanding. It's pretty tough to find the right one these days."
And yet ask Safin whether he enjoys being famous, and he grins mischievously. "Well, it gives you a lot of things for free, and I like them." What does money mean to him? "It means freedom of choice."
It also means that his renowned lack of domesticity is not an issue. Admitting that his mother still does his laundry when back home in Moscow, Safin protests that he can cook when he has to, but that it is the "very painful" washing up that he loathes.
"But I have no family with me, I have no girlfriends, I have no boyfriends and I have no kids so I never have dinner at home," he says. "I'm always eating with my friends at a restaurant, so it's a special life and I'm enjoying it."
Most of the time, anyway. During the ATP blog written during his home tournament in November, Safin noted one morning that his first thought upon waking was of the lucky ones sunning themselves in the Caribbean. There are moments, clearly, when he would prefer to be elsewhere.
"It gives me a lot of privileges being a tennis player, but definitely at some difficult times you wish you could escape somewhere, in a different place, sitting down somewhere under the palm tree and drinking caipirinha instead of running around in 50-degree heat in Washington," he says. "Especially when I'm not in the best shape and when I'm not winning any matches."
Yet Safin is now, again, winning more than he is losing, having recently recovered from the second serious injury of his career. It has been suggested that one problem may be he is now half-a-step slower, and the former world No.1 has admitted to being fearful and tentative at times during his comeback.
However, US Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe recently told Tennis Week: "I think he's fine. And its not like he's a Hewitt or Nadal who relies so much on his movement. He's more of a preparation and power guy … there's no reason, to me, he can't play well and be a threat in Australia."
www.smh.com.au/news/tennis/regrets-i-travel-the-world-with-beautiful-women-making-a-fortune/2007/01/12/1168105179826.html?page=3
..... , but due to my job I have desided to sleep, but all my thoughts was there 
).
Sixpack guard 
Good thing I went to bed at 3:1 first set. Guess Andy was able to stop the Safin Express...
) ;D ;D
It was a bad match for him.. Hope he`ll do better on AO 
