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Post by luxsword on Sept 14, 2007 22:58:39 GMT 3
i like the comment of the guy saying the ladies in his trip tried them sort of everywhere ;D
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Post by Dina on Oct 14, 2007 0:11:17 GMT 3
From the Os: ;D
Marat Safin, ‘I’m searching. Constantly.’
Marat Safin is a unique person. Even though he lost his high rankings because of a serious injury, the former world number one is still interesting and intriguing for the fans, spectators and tournament management. And at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow this week he is, no doubt, the major star. Safin hates routine and he’s always sincere – sincere in his actions, behaviour, thoughts and words. That’s what Maria Kuznetsova from “Izvestia” had the chance to make sure of.
‘When people have nothing to say, they come up with meddlesome advice’
Q: Let’s start with an unusual question. What were your thinking about when you woke up today?
MS: I guess, I didn’t think about anything at all, because it all goes automatically – practicing, playing. Waking up automatically, then shower, and then a ride to the courts. Boring… (frowning)
Q: Do you make plans then?
MS: I never do, just because they never come true. Especially in here, during the tournament. Every minute of the day is fixed till the very evening. The only thing I can make plans about is where I’m going to have dinner.
Q: It’s annoying, isn’t it?
MS: Not that much, I just don’t like it. I want something new and exciting.
Q: What’s annoying then? What is the thing that gets on your nerves?
MS: It drives me mad, when some people say “Marat, you’re a talented player, but you should practice more. Usually people, who say something like that, know nothing or very little and have no relation to tennis. They have nothing more to say, so they come up with such advice.
Q: And your new coach, Hernán Gumy from Argentina? He comes up with no advice?
MS: You see any career has certain stages – the beginning, the middle and the end. When you’re just starting you should practice more, work on some elements, improve some of them... When you’re 25 it’s hard to change anything. I’m already a mature player, and I need a coach who can understand this. He can force me to do one thing, but at the same time he should let some other things go their own way.
Q: That’s what Gumy is like?
MS: He’s very calm. The point for him is to be this calm while he’s on court and not to make a fuss. Otherwise, you know, I might blow my top off.
Q: Blow your top off? Like doing what?
MS: Well, I might break my racket, or just tell everyone to… Well, you know how our Russian people swear. I bet you’ve heard workers at a construction site?
Q: I have. What else annoys you?
MS: Phone calls. If someone is calling, they want something from you. I don’t like answering, and when I don’t people get offended and angry, ask why I haven’t called them back, what’s up. That’s what annoys me the most.
Q: And your friends? Who are they?
MS: Good question… Almost all of them have some business. But there are also artists. Different people who have been living a long life and who have great experience.
Q: And who is Shamil Tarpischev for you?
MS: Tarpischev? Shama… A genius coach and a man who easily finds a way out of any situation. He reads people perfectly, gets his ideas straight and has enormous experience. He sees people through – he just needs to talk to them for two minutes. I have a great respect for him.
‘I recall my past so as not to walk on air too much’
Q: Comparing your old interviews and the more recent ones, it’s easy to see how much calmer and wiser you’ve become. Do you think much about yourself?
MS: Depends on what you mean by it. Yes, I think about myself, but not in a narcissistic way. (laughing) You see, it’s important not to get too obsessed with yourself and only yourself. But at the same time you should love yourself. If you can’t love yourself, how can you love anyone else? And people, who are close to us, also need our attention badly.
Q: What do you think about your life then?
MS: We all try to foresee what we’ll be doing in 5 years. And we set some goals for ourselves, because it’s very difficult to live without any. First a person aims at entering the university, than take a second degree. Then giving everything to work, to climb the career ladder. Thirdly he is just stuck in traffic jams every day. And then, at 50, he is hit by the realization, that he hasn’t actually done anything with his life. He was fussing, running around, but what for…
Q: And you yourself?
MS: I’m searching. Constantly.
Q: You sound like a philosopher or like a priest.
MS: Nope, I don’t read the Bible.
Q: And what are you reading?
MS: The most recent one was “A Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Q: Never thought that you might like books of this kind.
MS: And what’s wrong about it? It’s kind of boring to read only classics all the time, I just need something different. So you go for the contemporary literature or something philosophical.
Q: What do you consider wealth?
MS: The years I’ve lived. I don’t need too much money, a house in Rublevka (the street in Moscow, where most of the rich and the famous live) or a villa in the French Riviera. Wealth for me is not all these material things, it’s a life experience.
Q: You once said in an interview, ‘I’m lucky, because I’ve got out of poverty’.
MS: That’s not true, I’ve never put it that way. I’ve grown up at VDNH, which is quite a nice district of Moscow. Just the whole situation my family was in was not that great. The four of us were living in the flat of 20 square meters. I know that lots of people had worse conditions, but still. The point is that then I hadn’t had the actual chance of achieving anything serious in tennis. That’s why I’m saying – I’m lucky. A man appeared who gave money for me to go to Spain. It was a big amount of money – $ 300 000. You could imagine what $300 000 meant in 1994, couldn’t you? That was an inconceivable sum of money. So I’m still very grateful to that sponsor.
Q: Do you often go over the past? And what for?
MS: I do sometimes... And what for? In order not to loose the feeling of reality. You start to walk above the clouds, and then there it comes – a recollection from childhood, which immediately brings you back to the ground. For instance I go into the supermarket, where the shelves are full of different yummy things, and recall standing in line to buy some sugar. That’s exactly the moment, you know, when you start appreciating your life of today.
Q: Have these recollections become an extra stimulus for achieving some success?
MS: Of course. Otherwise, who would I have been if I hadn’t got into the tennis elite? Ok, a coach who gets $15 per hour. That might be enough for living, but hardly enough for a family and definitely not enough for buying a flat and a car. And then what? I don’t like this hopeless kind of life.
‘I wear pants that cost me $20’
Q: You’re thought to be one of the most eligible bachelors of the country. How do you choose girls?
MS: Just the same way you choose us. I look at the face and a bit lower.
Q: What do you value in women?
MS: Personality. Character is not a small thing either.
Q: How do you feel about marriage?
MS: I’m positive about it. But only after the children are born. After having been living with someone for 15 years you understand if you really love him or her.
Q: Not earlier? What happens before then?
MS: Love at the very beginning is an illness, a wild and feverous one. Then it transforms into respect, without which two people just can’t live together for long. Or either it does not transform, and to understand this you need time.
Q: Are you fashion-conscious?
MS: Not really. I don’t wear Versace; I don’t have Dolce&Gabbana or Cavalli jeans. I’m not trying to buy things of the latest fashion – I just don’t need that. I’m not trying to prove anything to anyone. There’s no one to prove anything to, and what for, after all?
Q: But you like to dress up smartly and nicely?
MS: Just have a look. Now I’m wearing jeans that I’ve bought for $20 on sale in the States, white socks that definitely don’t fit the image, shoes that are probably older than myself and a torn T-shirt.
Q: And what about Rolex on your wrist?
MS: (laughing) Ah, this… It’s for free. I’m promoting it.
Q: But you won’t deny your passion for good cars?
MS: No (smiling) I like to be comfortable sitting.
Q: What do you prefer?
MS: I’ve got two right now – Mercedes and Porsche. The first I got as a present, the second – I bought myself.
Q: Well, rather expensive ones…
MS: I’ve told you. One is a present. The second I bought with a huge discount - about 50%, it was sold to me by a friend of mine. You should have rich friends with good cars. (laughing) As Ostap Bender said (the hero of one of the Russian books – The 12 chairs”, and “The Golden Calf”) – a car is not a sign of luxury, but a means of transport.
Maria Kuznetsova
Translated by Katherine
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Post by Dina on Oct 14, 2007 0:26:29 GMT 3
priceless hbibi! but I'll make ya change your mind about that marriage thing before the children!!!!no way!
and i really like to discover things about him; as his preferences in literature! proud of ya Maratik; you really are reading a hundred years of solitude? I'm impressed! Ya almost got over Freud who never understood us; women!
(by the way, I like Freud as well!)
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Post by yarina on Oct 14, 2007 2:04:15 GMT 3
the marriage thing...it is a poetic way of seeing marriage, but I'd say somehow idealistic: I believe women (even the very independent ones) generally need certainty and someone whom they can rely on in a marriage; also, children need a family to grow up happily...and even as a man, you have to understand these things. then a marriage is after all an alliance which cannot well function without that love transformed into respect that he's talking about, but which is not only about that: it is also about commitment and compromise sometimes, i think... well, it is true that he's a man with a lot of freedom of choice  and I am sure he could find more than one woman who'd be happy to go through all these proof-of-respect years with him, even if she does not agree to his whole free spirit theory... I'd like to believe that he actually read "100 years of solitude" (and liked it)...Marquez is my favourite and this is an amazing book (well, you usually do not get the Nobel prize for scribbling something there...) |
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marti
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Post by marti on Oct 14, 2007 10:21:48 GMT 3
Last year he read Schopenhauer and even made Dinara read it too. What's so surprising that he reads Marquez?
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Post by yarina on Oct 14, 2007 11:06:14 GMT 3
Last year he read Schopenhauer and even made Dinara read it too. What's so surprising that he reads Marquez? I'll answer with a funny story: when I was in high school, we had a star handball player, very talented kid and very witty also, but not necessarily the most educated. Once, when they interviewed him, in order to make him sound more sophisticated, they wrote that his favourite author is dostoievski, but the truth was he had never read a page of dostoievski in his life....well, he actually did not read many pages anyway so the moral of the story was, never take articles and interviews at face value I am trying to do that, but since I like Marat for all these "different" things that he's reported to be doing, I also tend to believe that they are true... |
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taboo
New Member
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Post by taboo on Oct 14, 2007 11:08:46 GMT 3
"MS: We all try to foresee what we’ll be doing in 5 years. And we set some goals for ourselves, because it’s very difficult to live without any. First a person aims at entering the university, than take a second degree. Then giving everything to work, to climb the career ladder. Thirdly he is just stuck in traffic jams every day. And then, at 50, he is hit by the realization, that he hasn’t actually done anything with his life. He was fussing, running around, but what for…"
No, Marat, we don't all try to figure out where we'll be in 5 years because it is pointless and completely inefficient. But I bet you did, you got disappointed and you still sound disappointed!
And people don't usually do anything special with their lives except whatever they FEEL like it - some spend their lives falling in love, others working, others ruling the world, or others winning countless Grand Slams. The only reference point that one can have in order to see if he/she has "actually done anything with his life" is oneself. People are unique and should be appreciated as such.
Believe it or not, it is a HUGE achievement to be yourself in this world and do what you feel like doing!!!
I apologize for providing such critics for Marat in a place that suppports him. I think he is just a boy, he needs to grow up!...and NO, just because he's worked all his life and won plenty of money, DOES NOT make him a grown up!
Oh well, I am done here! ;D
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marti
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Post by marti on Oct 14, 2007 11:25:38 GMT 3
[I'll answer with a funny story: when I was in high school, we had a star handball player, very talented kid and very witty also, but not necessarily the most educated. Once, when they interviewed him, in order to make him sound more sophisticated, they wrote that his favourite author is dostoievski, but the truth was he had never read a page of dostoievski in his life....well, he actually did not read many pages anyway so the moral of the story was, never take articles and interviews at face value I am trying to do that, but since I like Marat for all these "different" things that he's reported to be doing, I also tend to believe that they are true... Excuse me, but this is a different case. This is not an article, this is an interview, interview in a serious newspapaer. They wouldn't make up an answers to the questios. Last year in the other serious newspapaer he mentioned about Schopenhauer . And much later in one of Dinara's interviews this year she told that Marat forced her to read Schopenhauer and that she liked it eventually and even read another of his book. Lundren said once that Marat reads a lot. Other people close to him also said it. Maybe for someone who hasn't been following Marat close enough for a long time this could be surprising but for those who read all of his interviews and the qoutes of other people about him, there is not surprising at all  |
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Post by yarina on Oct 14, 2007 11:28:42 GMT 3
No, Marat, we don't all try to figure out where we'll be in 5 years because it is pointless and completely inefficient. . hmmm...it all depends (as you also said) on who you are and what you want to achieve: I can tell you from my personal experience that some cannot totally go with the flow all the time, and sometimes you need not a minute 5 year plan, but at least some perspective in your life: you need to know where you are heading in order to get where you want to be (and with whom you want to be...) The only reference point that one can have in order to see if he/she has "actually done anything with his life" is oneself. I totally agree with this... |
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Post by yarina on Oct 14, 2007 11:36:17 GMT 3
Maybe for someone who hasn't been following Marat close enough for a long time this could be surprising but for those who read all of his interviews and the quotes of other people about him, there is not surprising at all believe me, I am following him more than I should, I think and as i said, I actually also tend to believe all these, and that's because I like to believe. but being a bit reluctant about believing 100% makes one feel a bit more realistic: after all he's a person that i like a lot but never met and most probably will never actually get to know. I might be (or sound) a bit too skeptical sometimes in my quest for realism |
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marti
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Post by marti on Oct 14, 2007 11:38:29 GMT 3
I apologize for providing such critics for Marat in a place that suppports him. I think he is just a boy, he needs to grow up!...and NO, just because he's worked all his life and won plenty of money, DOES NOT make him a grown up! Oh well, I am done here! ;D I don't agree. He's not a boy. He just a man having mid-age crisis earlier that usual. |
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marti
Junior Member
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Post by marti on Oct 14, 2007 11:45:23 GMT 3
believe me, I am following him more than I should, I think and as i said, I actually also tend to believe all these, and that's because I like to believe. but being a bit reluctant about believing 100% makes one feel a bit more realistic: after all he's a person that i like a lot but never met and most probably will never actually get to know. I might be (or sound) a bit too skeptical sometimes in my quest for realism I'm myself very sceptical person and never trust media. My opinion was made not by this one article but based on a lot of other articles, interviews, reports and other stuff. So that I can see the picture in the whole more or less. Though you are right we don't know Marat personally,so we can never be 100% about anything. As for Marat , it's obvious he's not educated (he didn't have opportunity to get a proper one) but he tries to make up for it. Unfortunately, reading books can't substitute real education and he'll need to go and learn fo real after he retires. |
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Post by maryb on Oct 14, 2007 19:52:11 GMT 3
quote] As for Marat , it's obvious he's not educated (he didn't have opportunity to get a proper one) but he tries to make up for it. Unfortunately, reading books can't substitute real education and he'll need to go and learn fo real after he retires. It's obvious he's not educated? That assumption was based on? You don't just get an 'education' if it's within the confines of the four walls of a university and get that official bit of paper at the end. Life is an education ... and I'm sure that Marat learns a great deal from both his reading material and his life experiences. And will continue to do so long after his tennis career ends. You don't need to look far back in history to see the value of books and the impact they can have on society ... the Nazis tried to burn books remember. |
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Post by maryb on Oct 14, 2007 19:56:25 GMT 3
LMAO.
Q: How do you feel about marriage?
MS: I’m positive about it. But only after the children are born. After having been living with someone for 15 years you understand if you really love him or her.
He's taking the piss guys. ;D
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marti
Junior Member
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Post by marti on Oct 14, 2007 20:11:36 GMT 3
It's obvious he's not educated? That assumption was based on? You don't just get an 'education' if it's within the confines of the four walls of a university and get that official bit of paper at the end. Life is an education ... and I'm sure that Marat learns a great deal from both his reading material and his life experiences. And will continue to do so long after his tennis career ends. I'm sorry for misunderstanding.I only mean that Marat didn't have chance to learn properly at school after he left to Spain, let alone University education. I don't doubt that he has a bright mind and ability to learn but he might lack knowledge in certain fields and doesn't have any proffesion apart from tennis. He himself said in the interviews that he'll have to learn after he retires. |
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and I am sure he could find more than one woman who'd be happy to go through all these proof-of-respect years with him, even if she does not agree to his whole free spirit theory...
