Articles about Marat

[annie]

yeah, please? would love to know what the articles is about...anyway...the pics teresa was talking about...here they are...really gorgeous!

[Teresa]

Annie
Thanks for posting the pics
They are reaallllly gorgeous

[MariaV]

For my dear Teresa on her request - here's the translation of the Utro newspaper interview about the charity he started. I hope you can understand my bad English.

Safin: My character helped me to become who I am

Yelena PRIKHODKO, on 03 March, 2005
4-6 March the Russian tennis team will play 1/8 final match of the Davis Cup against Chile. Most probably both teams won't avoid some player losses. Our guests won't have their leaser Nicolas Massu on their team, in the Russian team Nikolai Davydenko's participation is doubtful. Although the management of our team will decide on the final lineup. One, however, remains constant: special hopes are on the leader of the team, Marat Safin. The player himself calls for sober approach: "Any Davis Cup tie is difficult, we should be very careful since we don't know who will be the second player of the ean team and who will play the doubles".
In the exclusive interview to "Utro" safin gives his view on the state of men's and women's tennis, tells about his own successes and failures, about his participation in charity and about what he could do after the end of his sporting career. "Utro": Marat, this season began for you very successfully - with victory at the Australian Open. But then followed the unexpected defeat in the first round in Dubai. What's the reason for this instability?
Marat Safin: In our sport a lot depends on luck. No-one can say beforehand that he is ready to win at a Grand Slam tournament. The last time I won a Grand Slam tournament was 5 years ago. Some players never win any of them. We have only Yevgeny Kafel'nikov who has won two Grand Slam tournaments. He also won the Olympic gold medal. But it is very difficult to reach even such achievements. Everyone is prepared to play well but sometimes failures happen. It would be even uninteresting without them.
"U": Does this mean that in your opinion one shouldn't even assume that someone will be able some time to win the Grand Slam?
M.S.: I think it's impossible not only physically but also psychologically. To be in good shape for a long period of time and play seriously and well - it's very difficult. Although, of course, nothing is impossible. But so far no-one has succeeded. Maximum - 3 tournaments in the year.
"U": It seems that modern tennis has already reached the top in its development. Today successful player has to be universal. Is it possible that some technical innovations appear that allow someone to go far ahead?
M.S.: Today's conditions are pretty sufficient. If today they still begin to devise something this will be a distortion, mockery on people and the sport. We are already talking about the ceiling. Tennis has reached the moment of perfection. Today the player with stronger psyche wins because everyone has good technique, without it one can do nothing in modern tennis. If you have poor technique you will be break down, injuries will begin.
"U": How many hours a day do you train?
M.S.: Everything depends on the season. Training season - 5 hours a day. Between competitions - around 3. And this is now, before I became a serious tennis-player I had to train 6-7 hours.
"U": The Russian fans have got used to get good news more frequently from the women's tennis tournaments. Men have not performed on the same level. Are there some young players that have come up, someone of young and talented stepping on the heels?
M.S.: The women have a little different situation. I don't want to offend them but still for them it's somewhat easier to pass the stage of formation. We need to be pushy, strong, to have a larger quantity of certain qualities which are necessary to become a professional. Women can use more teir individual features: some move well, some have a great forehand. Men must have everything. This stage of formation is complex and is difficult. Many break and leave tennis. That's why there is less of us. There are some very talented players but so far I don't see the seriousness in their actions - everyone is soaring in the clouds. Between the business and the pleasure it's time to select business, i.e. tennis. But many people don't want to make this choice at the age of 18-19. There are too many temptations around.
"U": Why the majority of Russian tennis-players still prefer to train abroad?
M.S.: The main reason is the condition. We have not enough competitions, people with whom to train, facilities. The federation is doing something but the system is not completed. Therefore many people in order to porgress have to leave abroad. Here ther's no-one with whom to compete, to nothing to strive for. Although there are outstanding coaches, talented children, something is disrupted in this chain - there is no basis, no model. There is no desire to move forward.
"U": Your on-court behaviour is liked by many but many don't appreciate it...
M.S.: I know, I've heard repeatedly about this. I understand that not everyone can be pleased with my behavior there are always those who don't like something. But there are moments (no-one is secure from them), when nerves prevail. Indeed tennis is a game where one error can lead to a big defeat. The emotions are so strong at such moments that sometimes it's very hard to behave adequately on court. Besides I don't make anything terrible. If I wasn't like I am and dind't have the character I have I could sit somewhere at the market in Tashkent and sell dates or study somewhere. I would be a good boy, drive on a trolleybus, everyone would be pleased with me - but I myself would be dissatisfied with myself because this not in my character. My character helped me to become who I am.
"U": I know that you became a co-founder of a charitable orthopedic foundation. Could you please tell about its activity.
M.S.: We want to help the former athletes who realtively late ended their professional careers. Almost always they have many health problems. Injured hip joints, elbows, arms - hazards of occupation in professional sport. In our country, I don't even know how to explain it, there's a situation when these people after life in sports can't allow themselves to make an operation which would help them feel themselves normal people in everyday life. So there came this idea - to create the charitable foundation and try to help at least some of these people.
"U": Your role in this foundation, as I understand, does consist mainly of fundraising?
M.S.: Kind of, yes. I can make this. Moreover, I feel the need to do this. To me this is interesting and necessary. Now I'm working on one other project how to bring additional money to the foundation. Because besides paying for the operations themselves, it's necessary to buy equipment and materials.
"U": In that case don't you have the idea to organize an exhibition match in Moscow with your participation? I think interest in it would be realtively great and it would be possible to raise a lot of money.
M.S.: You know, the idea itself is only a little over six months old. To make it a reality one has to work with it. There are people dealing with it basically we only started and now the main thing is to make the society believe in this undertaking. Maybe I'll try to organise something at the Davis Cup tie. It is sad that athletes who who ende their professional careers, bluntly speaking, turned out to be not needed in our country. We don't have programs for career-development after sports. They try to manage by themselves as well as they can.
"U": But have you yourself decided when you'll finish your sporting career?
M.S.: I am playing at the professional level for 7 years already. I think it is possible to play until 30 - this is the optimal period. Life is short. You need to try yourself also in some other role.
"U": Still, what could this role be?
M.S.: I don't know yet. I have to look. Business, hobby... Anything. You have to try to squeeze the maximum possible out of yourself so that it wouldn't be painful and sad for the stupidly squandered years. I think the peak of the career is at 25-27. After that already the final stage, with some small peaks - this would be great. To leave beautifully at 30 I consider completely worthy. At least in our sport. In no case you can compare tennis to other sports, we have a different situation. We travel 365 days in the year. This is very hard. Some people break at the age of 25-26 while some can run until they are 34.

[SAFINNO1]

do u ever think Marat will give a boring interview, the guy is genious.

Safin Uses His Charm to Mitigate Any Harm
Russian has a winning personality to smooth over rough spots in his winning tennis game.

By Lisa Dillman, Times Staff Writer


Who needs handlers and spinners if you are Marat Safin?

"Write nice things about me," he says, smiling.


It's not an order. Well … maybe not.

This is a guy who won't allow his personality to be airbrushed by operatives. The 25-year-old Russian has always done his own retouching, and quite successfully, at that. Few are better at softening an outrageous quote or action with a wink and a smile.

He tosses a racket or breaks one, and there's soap-box talk that he's hurting the game. The best example came when Safin dropped his shorts at the French Open last year, receiving almost as much attention for that in some quarters as he did for winning the 2000 U.S. Open.

There was no fine for the moon moment over Paris. Randy Moss pretends to drop and gets hit with a $10,000 fine from the NFL.

"There's no such thing as bad press. It's a press and they write about you, it's already a good thing," Safin said in an interview during the Pacific Life Open in the players' lounge at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

The tilt has been pro-Safin, and then some, in 2005. He shook off the heavy specter of the one-Slam-wonder tag, finally winning No. 2 in spectacular fashion in Melbourne at the Australian Open in January.

In the semifinals, he beat defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland in a five-set epic, fighting off a match point, and ended Federer's 26-match winning streak. Instead of faltering at the finish line because of exhaustion — the way he did in the 2004 Australian Open final — Safin got across it, fighting off Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and an expectant nation with the help of Federer's former coach, Peter Lundgren.

Safin has been thinking about the Federer match, probably because he is often asked about it. Federer had been carrying an aura of invincibility, having won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2004 and not lost to a player ranked in the top 10 since the fall of 2003.

"You want this match to be a classic like [Boris] Becker-[Stefan] Edberg. Safin-Federer," Safin said. "Different generations. Win or lose, you are really having fun and enjoying it. No matter how hard it is, you remember the feeling on the court. And I'm still remembering.

"These kind of matches, you can't forget the feeling. I remember when I played against [Pete] Sampras five years ago. It was such a special feeling. It's like for the people to win an Oscar when they did a great movie. For example, if you ask Robert DeNiro, or Marlon Brando — well, you can't ask him — but what was the experience when you did 'The Godfather'?"

Safin admired the way Federer responded in defeat.

"If you are a loser, you have to accept that somebody beat you and that somebody beat you fairly, and show your face," Safin said. "And he did. He looked in the eyes. It's very important for people to look in the eyes after they finish the match."

That doesn't always happen. Safin used a colorful expletive to describe what he thought of players who look away and offer a half-hearted handshake.

"It shouldn't be this way," he said. "Whenever you lose, whatever, 'Well done.' "

Safin's victory has changed the landscape at the top of men's tennis. He has forced Federer to respond, and the Swiss player has won two tournaments since then. Federer and Safin could meet in the semifinals here at Indian Wells. They both will play their openers today: Federer vs. Mardy Fish and Safin vs. Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.

"It's not like I lost in straight sets and had no chance against Safin," Federer said. "Then you could wonder. But the way the match turned out, for me it was quickly forgotten."

Not by his other colleagues on the tour. Andre Agassi was asked the other day about trying to catch up to the four at the top of the game: "Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and whatnot."

Agassi smiled, saying: "The 'whatnot' would be Safin, right?"

Safin had been viewed as the wild card in the bunch. Supremely talented, something of a simmering volcano. He was capable of playing any shot, at any time. Or saying anything, anywhere. The words "no comment" aren't part of his vocabulary, in any language, and Safin did not disappoint in a couple of a wide-ranging interviews last week.



• On using line-calling technology: "Why not? It's the right direction. Because a lot of close calls, they change a lot of matches. One day you are a little unlucky and you lose the match. If you would have won that match you would have won the tournament. It is a matter of centimeters. Two centimeters can change whole life."

• On Federer's excellence: "He wins all the Grand Slams he wants, whenever he wants. OK, he had bad luck against me. But he's No. 1 in the world. So for him it should be boring playing tennis. People should admire him. To come back and back, come back to the tournaments and play, everybody wants to beat you … you touch the roof. Is difficult to come back and play.

"I still have many goals. I hope I will achieve much more than what I did before. This is my goal. I have something to climb up, way to climb up."

[annie]

WOW, thanks for the article Ily! It's great, i love it!
and thanks to Maria for translating the article from Utro...

[ANNA205]

Safin on rise with latest coach

BY CHARLES BRICKER

South Florida Sun-Sentinel


KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. - (KRT) - It was one of those training session crescendo rallies with Marat Safin and Alex Bogomolov firing at each other Sunday on the stadium court, three days before the start of the Nasdaq-100 Open.

It started with Bogomolov at the net and a couple of light touches of the ball when Safin's ground strokes took on more and more pace and Bogomolov's volleys more and more sting - until the two were slamming reflex volleys at each other from point blank range.

Safin finished it with a backhand, they smiled at each other and, as they took a break, Safin joked, ``On the practice court, I'm No. 1 in the world.''

He's again taking on the aspect of a No. 1 in the rankings, too, after defeating Roger Federer in the semifinal of the Australian Open and racing out to a 10-2 record this season.

No one has doubted Safin's physical gifts since he crushed Pete Sampras in the 2000 U.S. Open. But it has taken affable coach Peter Lundgren, 4 1/2 years later, to bring some order to Safin's mentality, which once seemed to be flying in five directions at once.

``First of all, you have to get the respect from the player,'' Lundgren said.

``And it took a while for us to get to know each other. But maybe that's my strength. I can feel his mood because I was a player myself.''

Safin, ranked No. 4, had been through a succession of coaches when he hired Lundgren at the Italian Open in May 2004.

They didn't get off to a good start as he won only 12 of 22 matches from there through a first-round loss to Tommy Enqvist at the U.S. Open. And then, bingo.

Safin won three titles, two of them Masters Series events, at Beijing, Madrid and Paris, then blazed through the Aussie Open in January and is 25-5 since the loss to Enqvist.

Safin is 25 now and Lundgren used a well known argument to get his client to commit himself fully to his tennis, pointing out that he had perhaps five good seasons left and did he want to look back on a wasted career, wondering how much he could have accomplished had he applied himself with the zeal of Federer or Pete Sampras.

Things are going well now, but it's still too early in the Safin-Lundgren relationship to predict it will continue on this positive course.

Safin's performance through the entire year will be a better test.

Safin arrived here after losing in the third round to Taylor Dent at Indian Wells and is well into his preparation for the Nasdaq.

``The whole thing is to not practice too much but to focus on what he should focus on,'' Lundgren said.

The win over Federer at Melbourne was especially delicious for Lundgren, who was fired by Federer after the 2003 season. He was asked if he had any particular wisdom to impart to Safin about Federer tendencies, if there are any.

``Yeah, a few things,'' said Lundgren, smiling.

[SAFINNO1]

marat and peter really do respect each other and have taken it beyond a player and coach partnership

[SAFINNO1]

Tennis: Safin is his own worst enemy
The Russian still insists on torturing himself with self-doubt two months after his Grand Slam win in Australia



There are those who believe that Marat Safin is the most sublime of tennis talents and the player who is best equipped to wage a serious threat to the imperious Roger Federer. Others, meanwhile, genuinely fear for the Russian’s sanity, so often does his inner psyche suffer peaks and troughs that don’t affect his peers.

Both schools of thought hoped that his triumph in the Australian Open — which included a truly epic semi-final victory over Federer followed by an emphatic win over Lleyton Hewitt to capture a long overdue second major title — would finally exorcise the demons that have tormented Safin for so long. Two months on from his Melbourne victory, however, such expectations seem to have been blown away by one of the many gusts whipping up off Biscayne Bay.



The Muscovite is still in this year’s second Masters Series event, but his continuing attachment to the Nasdaq-100 Open is tenuous, to say the least. Hewitt is back home in Australia, putting his feet up after toe surgery, while defending champion Andy Roddick has also joined the injured list, retiring from his first-round match with Fernando Verdasco because of a jarred wrist. Yet the third-seeded Safin isn’t just trying to deflect pressure when he insists it is ludicrous to suggest that he remains Federer’s only main threat.

Are those wondrous few days Down Under really still so fresh in the memory? Listening to Safin’s lament, it seems as though it all happened an age ago. “Everything is becoming more difficult,” he moans with the hang-dog look of a man who is struggling to recollect what it’s like to win a match, let alone lift major prizes. “It’s difficult to go out there on court without the confidence, but it’s almost inevitable. After Australia, there was always going to be a period when I went downhill again.”

Less tangled minds than Safin’s would have sat back for a week or so after winning the year’s opening major event, savoured every aspect of what he had achieved and then used it as a platform of self- esteem from which to build. But not this young man; he is almost using the trophy as a weight to drag himself down in self-doubt.

“I am not like Roger [Federer],” insisted Safin, apparently paying no heed to the five-set victory he scored against the Swiss. “He’s way too high and has all the skills. Even when he is not playing well, he has enough feeling and talent to cover it up. Me, when I’m not playing well, I just suffer a little bit more and my game sinks because most of the time it’s a risk.”

Unlike Federer — who was utterly pragmatic after his loss in Australia and has regrouped superbly to collect successive titles in Rotterdam, Dubai and, most recently, Indian Wells — two post-Melbourne defeats were all that was required to wreck Safin’s poise: the first-round loss to Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer in Dubai and then a second-round exit in Indian Wells to Taylor Dent of the United States.

It didn’t seem to matter to Safin that, in between, he won both his Davis Cup rubbers against Chileans Adrian Garcia and world No 16 Fernando Gonzalez — the latter a particularly close five-set encounter that involved three tie-breaks. Like many artists before him, Safin seemed to be set on a course of self-deprecation. “I’m a perfectionist,” he claimed. “It’s really difficult for me, you know, to admit or to accept that I’m not playing really well.”

Had his Key Biscayne opener against Irakli Labadze ended in another defeat instead of the extremely close 6-4 2-6 7-6 win, there is no telling how much Safin would have sunk. After all, he was facing the world’s No 105-ranked player, a man who really does have problems; Labadze has a kidney stone that regularly demands the strongest of painkillers, not to mention a subpoena from an Austrian court on the issue of possible match-fixing.

Last May a friend of Labadze, Martin Fuehrer, placed a bet on the Georgian losing a first-round match at the St Poelten tournament to doubles specialist Julian Knowle. A three-set win for Knowle brought Fuehrer a pay-out equivalent to close on £14,000, but after the ATP brought in legislation to prevent known associates of players from betting on results, the bookmakers refused to pay him the money, and a lawsuit rapidly followed.

“The loss to Dent was a really bad one, but this [against Labadze] would have been much worse,” said Safin, who despite winning his first major title at the 2000 US Open has long struggled with simply existing in America.

He has never progressed past the third round in seven attempts at Indian Wells, and apart from once making it to the quarter-finals, he has been similarly ineffectual here off the coast of Miami and fared no better later in the year at Cincinnati. Curiously, though, he is a past champion of the Canadian Masters Series event.

Repeatedly he has tried different approaches to overcome his alien feelings. Hotels have varied, along with the size of his travelling entourage. This year Safin is attempting to prove the more the merrier.

In an attempt to get back to family values, he has his girlfriend, his mother, Rausa, and his younger sister Dinara (a competitor on the WTA Tour) along for company, as well as coach Peter Lundgren and fitness trainer Walt Lammers. “Everybody’s here on my shoulders because I need the support,” he said. “There are times when you bring people you know to carry you, and that’s what I’m trying. If that doesn’t work, next time I’ll try something different again.”

Yet all the regular hallmarks of the 25-year-old’s frustrations were there to see. He mangled two rackets after losing his temper, and then ripped his shirt down the line of his breastbone before tugging it off his shoulders and tossing it away on the court in disgust. Of course he received the obligatory warning for his behaviour; it wouldn’t be a true Safin struggle without a little enforced discipline thrown in.

The continuing disappointment is that he needs to resort to such indiscretions. We hoped that Australia would represent a new dawn for this undeniably hugely talented individual. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

[Cassie]

SAFINNO1 said:

In an attempt to get back to family values, he has his girlfriend, his mother, Rausa, and his younger sister Dinara (a competitor on the WTA Tour) along for company, as well as coach Peter Lundgren and fitness trainer Walt Lammers. “Everybody’s here on my shoulders because I need the support,” he said. “There are times when you bring people you know to carry you, and that’s what I’m trying. If that doesn’t work, next time I’ll try something different again.”

Yet all the regular hallmarks of the 25-year-old’s frustrations were there to see. He mangled two rackets after losing his temper, and then ripped his shirt down the line of his breastbone before tugging it off his shoulders and tossing it away on the court in disgust. Of course he received the obligatory warning for his behaviour; it wouldn’t be a true Safin struggle without a little enforced discipline thrown in.

um... there's a bunch of errors in this article. First off, it's Walt Landers, and secondly, Walt is his ex-trainer now. Marat has a new Thai trainer.
And third, it was Irakli who ripped his shirt off and threw a racket after losing the match, not Marat.

[SAFINNO1]

Hey Hey i didnt write that. but otherwise i know

[annie]

Cassie said:

um... there's a bunch of errors in this article. First off, it's Walt Landers, and secondly, Walt is his ex-trainer now. Marat has a new Thai trainer.
And third, it was Irakli who ripped his shirt off and threw a racket after losing the match, not Marat.

My gosh yeah! Man, who wrote this? is he really a journalist?! he's got to make sure and check his facts first before he wrote anything...
this is really one of those things that Marat hates...it makes him look so bad and it's not even him they're writing about...

[Andrada]

Tennis
Fighting back from two sets and a break down to beat Rafael Nadal in the final of the Miami Masters is going to give Roger Federer even more confidence in his ability.

The world number one already knows that he is unbeaten in 18 finals, has only lost one match since the OlympicsTHANK U ,MARAT!!! ;D LOL and is setting all sorts of records and now - for only the second time in his career - he has come back from the brink of defeat to steal victory.

What a boost that will be for him as the Masters Series moves onto his least favourite surface: clay.

It is a really difficult time of the year as season switches from the medium-paced hard courts of the States to the slow red clay in Europe. The focus switches to a far more tactically aware game where mental and physical strength are essential.

There is only one week between Miami and Monte Carlo and it takes the players a while to adjust to the new surface, so I don't expect to see the best clay court tennis before they get to Rome or Hamburg.

Even though clay is Federer's worst surface, he is still in with a chance of picking up an incredible third successive Masters final in Monte Carlo. The Swiss has won twice on clay in Hamburg and he has proved that he can beat the best clay-courters at their own game.



Nadal: impressive form
However, he is not quite the same dominant force at the slower game and if any of the Spaniards or South Americans come up against him - especially in the early rounds - they will be thinking it is their best chance of beating him. If he makes it to the semis, you'd be a fool to back against him, though!

I'm looking forward to seeing Nadal on the clay courts. What a talent he is. Andre Agassi has already come out and said that the Spaniard is in better shape, physically and mentally, than he was at 18. Now, that is some compliment.

Nadal was really impressive in Miami and perhaps he missed out on that little bit of luck it takes to win big matches when the umpire over-ruled the line judge in the 12th game of the third set. He was obviously upset to have lost the final, but he will also have taken a lot of heart from his performance.

He flew straight to Valencia to start his clay season on Tuesday, which is one of the advantages of youth. It would be foolish to write him off as a genuine contender in Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg.

Defending champion Guillermo Coria will be delighted to return to his favourite surface, but he is not back to his best yet, after suffering a long-term injury. The Argentinean is still struggling to find his range and rhythm, but you can't rule out someone who moves as well as he does on the surface.

Australian Open champion Marat Safin has the capabilities to do well in the principality. He really needs to rebound from a disappointing month, after putting his early exits in Indian Wells and Miami down to the fact that he never plays well in March! That is such a Safin thing to say and he needs to get over it quickly and get back on track in the next three Masters events if he is going to have any chance of winning a second Major in Paris. FINGERS CROSSED

Henman: tricky prospect

Because of what Tim Henman achieved on clay last year, the surface no longer holds any fears for him and a lot of clay court specialists will be hoping to avoid playing him. Henman has a style that can make the transition between surfaces effectively. He mixes up his game with drop shots, slices and cross-court volleys and that means that the specialists are unable to get into their rhythm.

Physically Tim is in the best shape he has been in for over a year. He has made the semi-finals in Monte Carlo before and he will relish the challenge. He could go a long way in the draw again this year.

You also have to look at the French Open champion Gaston Gaudio as a challenger as well as Guillermo Canas, who is having a decent season, and Carlos Moya who is always a threat on clay.


PREDICTION


Can Federer win all nine?
It is really tough to pick a winner at the first clay court Masters event of the season because you cannot measure form and it is too open to call. Personally, I really hope Federer wins it. I don't think he would have come to Monte Carlo if he hadn't won in Miami, but now he has it in the back of his mind that he wants to win all nine Masters Series events. I don't think it will be possible to do that, but it would be fantastic if it were to happen. He would be setting a new benchmark and I think it would be great for the game.

[SAFINNO1]

Okay he is not going to win all 9 TMS he wont win Madrid and Paris, i bet my life on Marat winning these, especially Bercy.
Thanks for article

[tall_one]

Andrada said:

Because of what Tim Henman achieved on clay last year, the surface no longer holds any fears for him and a lot of clay court specialists will be hoping to avoid playing him.

lmao, yeah i'm sure all the real clayballers are just trembling in their shoes lol don't get me wrong, they have a healthy respect for Henman but there are a lot of other guys who they fear a lot more

Andrada said:

Can Federer win all nine?

All 9 this year? lmao no. All 9 eventually, probably

[SAFINNO1]

tall_one said:

lmao, yeah i'm sure all the real clayballers are just trembling in their shoes lol don't get me wrong, they have a healthy respect for Henman but there are a lot of other guys who they fear a lot more

I agree with you so much, living in britain they all believe he has the credentials to win RG just because he was offered the easiest path to the SF last year , i think the highest ranked played he played till the SF was Chela, who was ranked 44 or something.
I really dont get where they come up with all this nonsense.