Articles about Marat

[Annie]

Thanks Annette Good find

[Dina]

Danke Annette! very interesting article, obviously Herny has all the tools to get the real Marat back! Hope results will come someday!

[legato]

Quite an interesting article, Gumy is actually smaller than Marat though ???But hopefully it will prove to be a successful partnership. After going separate ways with the philospher, i.e Lundgren Marat calls on the discplinary
Gumy may be quite strong, but Marat's character has just look invincible since the start of his career In the end it's only Marat who can fix it up for himself.

[davis]

Once-volatile Safin more subdued late in career
DOUGLAS ROBSON
29 August 2007

NEW YORK — The stage was set for a classic Marat Safin moment. Returning serve on match point in a tense third-set tiebreaker against Frank Dancevic on Wednesday afternoon, Safin had climbed all over a second serve when a strange noise suddenly boomed over the stadium loudspeaker.

The chair umpire rightfully called a let to replay the point. Safin looked up in disbelief and disgust but slowly walked back to receive. He then lost the point.

Would he go postal? Destroy a racket? Charge the umpire? Mutter and gesture in loud voices to himself?

Not this time. Like more things of late, Safin buried it. On the next match point he stepped up and fired his 19th ace, sealing a first-round win against Canadian qualifier Dancevic 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (9-7) to book a second-round match against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

"Hopefully, it will never happen again," Safin said of the odd interruption while cracking his trademark grin.

It's always been tough to read the Moscow-born resident of Monaco. Mercurial, moody and exceptionally talented, Safin has earned fans as much for his outsized tennis as for his explosive unpredictability.

Big, at 6-4, and agile, the 2000 U.S. Open champ possesses a rare mix of speed and power. Safin, who has dissed Wimbledon, tortured unknown quantities of rackets and once dropped his shorts after hitting a spectacular winner, also has been that other rare mix: a Technicolor character who could win big.

Since capturing the 2000 U.S. Open at 20 and briefly ascending to No. 1, the Russian's name has rarely strayed far from the list of potential Grand Slam contenders. Despite bursts of brilliance, Safin has become more of an afterthought as injuries, age and apparent lack of commitment have taken their toll.

His last title came in early 2005, when he beat Roger Federer at the Australian Open on his way to a second Grand Slam title — the last man to beat Federer on a hardcourt at a Grand Slam and the last Grand Slam champ other than Federer or Rafael Nadal. This season, his best showing is a semifinal at Las Vegas, and he has suffered losses in the last few months to Janko Tipsarevic, Hyung-Taik Lee, Simone Bolleli and Kristof Vliegen.

"For me to make quarterfinal, it's a huge, huge deal lately," he says. "So kind of not expecting anything from this tournament and nothing from this year."

Safin is realistic about his No. 25 seeding, but not afraid to admit he still feels capable of winning majors.

"Basically I hope that I will have a chance to win another Grand Slam," he says. "It's tougher and tougher, but why not? There is a chance."

Smiling, he explains how: "If (Roger) Federer will lose to somebody, somebody will withdraw, (Rafael) Nadal will have something happen to him, the door is open."

If Safin often wrestles with demons in his head, he's not grappling with the past.

"Yeah, but who cares?" he answers when asked if his straight-sets whipping of Pete Sampras in the 2000 U.S. Open remains the best match of his career. "It's so far in the past. It's already history. It's a long time ago. It's time to move on."

And in case you didn't get his point, he adds: "I hate the people when they still live in the past and saying how great they were in, I don't know, in the past century."

Clearly, Safin isn't dwelling on his tennis past. The question is, how much future remains?

Injuries to his left wrist in 2003 and to his left knee in 2005 sidelined him for big chunks of the season and exacerbated his already erratic nature. His rankings the last seven years are yoyo-like: 2, 11, 3, 77, 4, 13, 26.

"It kind of broke the rhythm of my career," he says of the injuries. "I could have achieved more, but I didn't."

Safin says he has no regrets, even if some label him an underachiever. With more than $13 million in career prize money, tennis has made him rich and comfortable, allowing him to wine, dine and crisscross the globe.

"I'm not disappointed with my career," says Safin, who has reached four Grand Slam finals and won two Davis Cup titles with Russia.

He insists he remains motivated to return to the top — otherwise, why bother?

"It's not like I'm struggling with the money," he says. "It's not like I need it. I'm here just because I want to play and I'm enjoying playing. I'm enjoying fighting. I'm enjoying what I'm doing."

To shore up his game and shaky self-belief, Safin hired former pro Hernan Gumy of Argentina five weeks ago. Both say the partnership is paying off.

"He's starting to feel a little more confident," says Gumy, who has previously coached Guillermo Canas, Gustavo Kuerten and Guillermo Coria. "He's a guy who has the talent, who knows about the game. He will have a chance again."

If titles are scarce, the taste of victory remains sweet — "the most beautiful feeling in the world you're going to get," according to Safin.

"I think it kind of attracts you," he says. "It's what is moving you. And you still want to win matches and matches, so I think the motivation is there."

[annie]

and may you have an angel's tongue coach!!

[Alya10]

Thanks Annette

It still amazes me how journos can write about players as if they are cartoon characters... not much creativity among the pack
Still it's good to hear that Gumy said he is feeling more confident

[davis]

Russia's Safin seeks to reach new heights in Himalayas

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Russia's Marat Safin will bid to scale the world's sixth highest mountain, giving the former world number one a fresh challenge which looks set to rule him out of this month's Davis Cup semi-final against Germany.

Safin is part of an eight-member Russian expedition which is due to leave Nepal on Friday to climb Cho Oyu, the 8,201-metre (26,906 ft) mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border, a Nepalese hiking official told Reuters.

"This is an interesting climb but he has (had) very good physical exercise," Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said on Thursday.

"He is young and energetic although the climb is challenging. I'm hopeful he will succeed," said the official, who also heads Asian Trekking, the agency providing logistic support to the expedition.

He said the expedition was expected to last over a month, which is also likely to rule Safin out of the Mumbai Open starting on September 24, a day after the Davis Cup tie.

Expedition leader Alexander Abramov said a successful attempt would add to the stature of the two-time grand slam winner.

"Hopefully to his many victories in tennis, Marat will add one more victory on the sixth highest mountain in the world," Abramov was quoted as saying on a mountaineering Web site.

Safin, who won the Australian Open title in 2005, has struggled with form and injuries since that triumph and his last match was a second round loss at this year's U.S. Open.
sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slu...ters&type=lgns

[Anne]

Thanks for the article..

[justsafin]

an article about Marat in L'Equipe. (online translation into english)

original found at MTF
www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?t=658&page=638

Safin takes Saturé height with tennis, Marat Safin flew away Monday for Nepal. Objective: one month of trekking towards the Himalayan tops. MARAT SAFIN is champion of tennis. It is famous in the whole world. It is rich to million. It is beautiful, charmer and funny. It has very to allure the most beautiful girls of planet. However, at twenty-seven years, it always seeks happiness. That made a long time that it does not find it any more on the courts. Too much a long time. Classified today with the twenty-seventh world row, it did not gain any more of title since the Open one of Australia 2005. It had then drawn aside in semi-finals a certain Roger Federer, which nobody made a success of in Large Slam since then, Roland-Garros except. Then? Nothing, or if little. A thin contribution (in double) to conquer its second Davis Cut in 2006, after the triumph of Bercy 2002 vis-a-vis with France, and basta. Then, on its return of new US Open calamitous (defeat with the second turn against Switzerland Wawrinka in three sets) last week, Marat Safin spoke with its agent, Gerard Tsobanian. "I need to take the air..." In a few words, it said all What good is it to insist? When one occupied the first world place and pinned two stars with his short-sleeved shirt (US Open 2000, Open of Australia 2005), it is frankly necessary to miss pride to trail its mediocrity of city downtown, week after week, without reacting. Marat Safin said stop "It had the head in the bag, tells the agent. A friend who left for a trekking in the Himalayas proposed to him to accompany it. He accepted "the name of Safin thus will be erased list of committed tournaments of this beginning of autumn. Especially, the semi-final of Davis Cut, against Germany, in Moscow (September 21-23), will be played without him. And it is not certain that it is back for the Kremlin Cup as from October 8. Instead of honouring these two go major in the Russian capital, where he is an alive god, Safin will take height. It flew away for Nepal Monday. With a group of eleven people, it is on the way towards the Himalayan tops. Not the Everest and its 8 850 meters but almost "forwarding must join a station located at 8 200 meters", tells Tsobanian. One will hardly know any more, if not that the champion jovial fellow will base himself in a group of anonymous hikers of which he does not know anything or almost. At years light of the daily newspaper of a star of tennis. Forgotten luxurious continuations of the de luxe hotels where it goes down to length from seasons. Marat Safin signed for crapahuter the day while fighting against the lack of oxygen, to cross the small villages which paper the bottom of the high valleys, and, the come evening, to draw up its tent with the turning of a path. To climb the tops for better going down again of this infernal galaxy of the tennis which often makes him turn the head. Strange Marat is not with its first rupture with a medium where he knew glory, there is already nearly ten years To the summer 2003, trailing his sorrow and a recurring wound with the wrist, it had been already put on off.Unmois far from all while testing it American countryside on cement beat its full. _ with a friend, Denis Golovanov, which act office as coach at the time, it have take the tangent "One have rent a car, tell it more late, one have buy a roadmap routière and one be leave himself trott with Yosemite Park (in California). One made camp-site, one fished in rivers. One cleaned fish, one made them cook. I passed the fantastic weeks... "On his return on the circuit, in October of this year, it had insisted, weighing each word: "I missed tennis" Four months later, Safin was inclined finally of Open of Australia vis-a-vis in Federer. Still a year and it triumphed in Melbourne. And if other tops awaited it at the beginning of 2008? ROMAIN LEFEBVRE

[Anne]

Found this article.. still don't know if this is all true (I hope it itsn't!)

From: www.telegraphindia.com/1070914/asp/sports/story_8316273.asp

Calcutta/Kathmandu: Marat Safin has pulled out of the Kingfisher Airlines Open as well as the next few tournaments because of an injured wrist . Strangely, he’ll attempt the conquest of the world’s sixth highest peak with a Russian team.

“I was told by his agent today that a bad wrist had ruled Safin out for virtually the remainder of the season,” Mahesh Bhupathi told The Telegraph from Beijing.

Safin was to have been one of the top attractions in the Mumbai ATP meet from September 24, the others being Lleyton Hewit, Marcos Baghdatis and Richard Gasquet.

Now, he will feature in an eight-member expedition which is scheduled to leave Nepal on Friday to climb Cho Oyu, a 8,201-metre (26,906 ft) peak on the Nepal-Tibet border.

“This is an interesting climb but he (Safin) has had very good physical exercise,” said Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

“Safin is young and energetic although the climb is challenging. I’m hopeful he will succeed,” said Ang, who also heads the agency providing logistic support to the expedition. He added that the expedition could last a month.

[davis]

After leafing through the recent posts (not just on this site) I discovered that most people don't really know anything about mountain climbing - I suppose that's why so many scared comments can be read.

These site have nothing to do with Marat directly but they are reports by people who climbed the Cho Oyu. They will give you an idea on what it's like to venture in the Himalayas - no, you don't hang on ropes the whole time, no, you don't have internet access in the base camps... And yes, "normal" people do it and they manage to come back down again.

www.gdargaud.net/Climbing/ChoOyu.html
www.clarakulich.runout.at/expedition_chooyu.html

[lena]

thanks for infos

and on comment frommy site: Marat is a member of team with very experienced expedition leader, and some other guys are also not beginners. So noone who take this business serious will risk any incalculable thinks to endanger the expedition.

[avalon]

This is a website that keeps track of a lot of the trekking teams in Nepal. www.mounteverest.net/news

[luxsword]

davis said:

www.gdargaud.net/Climbing/ChoOyu.html

thanks a lot, annette
(on your link there's a marvelous thing called "Freshette system" ;D www.freshette.com/ )

[davis]

luxsword said:

davis said:

www.gdargaud.net/Climbing/ChoOyu.html

thanks a lot, annette
(on your link there's a marvelous thing called "Freshette system" ;D www.freshette.com/ )

OMFG ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

That would be my first purchase before going on a 4 week trip with only two changes of underwear and no shower... PRICELESS ;D ;D ;D