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Post by Dina on Apr 21, 2009 1:41:43 GMT 3
seriously...I've just seen one new blond cheering for him this week in MC....ah gossips!
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Post by dremajreed on Apr 21, 2009 5:52:04 GMT 3
Oh for crying out loud! Life.ru is the one who said he and Nastya had spent the holidays together in the Maldives. No such thing. He is not going to marry her, I don't think. She may think so, but who knows. I guess time will tell. And since he has had little time to be in Russia lately, how did he propose? By phone. I don't think so.
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Post by Annie on Apr 21, 2009 12:07:47 GMT 3
What do you think Russian ladies? Pure rubbish??? Ìàðàò Ñàôèí ñäåëàë ïðåäëîæåíèå ñîëèñòêå «Áëåñòÿùèõ» Íàñòå Îñèïîâîé life.ru/news/63955/life.ru is the yellowest press there is out here. You can't get yellower than that lol. Not even worth commenting |
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Post by maryb on Apr 21, 2009 20:03:45 GMT 3
Is there a new single coming out? LOL.
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Post by dremajreed on Apr 22, 2009 1:51:43 GMT 3
Annie, thanks for the confirmation. The poor guy can't even date someone without them saying he is going to get married. Would rather he played well!!
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Post by justsafin on Apr 30, 2009 11:14:27 GMT 3
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Post by yarina on May 4, 2009 20:02:58 GMT 3
Play well or quit, Safina tells MaratMarat Safin should put his whole heart into playing tennis or quit, his top-ranked sister Dinara Safina advised.Former world number one Safin has failed to win back-to-back matches in nine of his last 10 tournaments, often perishing despite being in a winning position. The 29-year-old was knocked out of last week's Rome Masters in the first round by Tommy Robredo after throwing away a 6-2 4-1 lead and Safina suggested her brother should hang up his rackets immediately if he is unable to turn around his form. "He knows he's going to retire (at the end of) this year, so it's tough," Safina said in Rome. "I would say that if you want to retire, either you do it or you play. "He doesn't. So he should make a decision if he wants to play or if he wants to retire. "He was supposed to (have) already retired last year and he's still going. He's a little bit unpredictable." uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/04052009/58/play-well-quit-safina-tells-marat.htmlEdit : The whole interview, in italian, can be found here: www.internazionalibnlditalia.it/1/PopNews.asp?LNG=IT&IDNews=841Last three questions are on Marat, last two on the fight from last year. The one related to the article above is, roughly: Q: your brother lost three matches that he'd already won. what do you think about this? Is he retiring?A:When he lost to Robredo he texted me saying that he was in shock. I don't know, for him it's difficult because he knows that at the end of the year he will retire. But I think that (if) you decide to retire, you have to do it, otherwise continue to play. You have to decide. This year we were not supposed to play Hopman Cup, because at the end of the year he told me that he wanted to stop. Then two weeks later he told me that we are playing. He's a bit unpredictable...
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Post by SAFINNO1 on May 5, 2009 19:36:37 GMT 3
English Translation of Dinara Press Conference
Q. What about your brother? Do you think you can help him in some way in this year? He lost three tournaments with matches he already won. Maybe you can give support.
DINARA SAFINA: Well, when he lost here to Robredo he send me a massage and he goes, Can you believe it's third week in a row I'm serving 5-4 and serving for the match? And he said like, I'm in shock.
I don't know, maybe it's from also from another hand like he knows he's gonna retire this year, so it's tough. I mean, he doesn't, like, okay, anyway I'm gonna retire, so maybe God -- I mean, I would say God punishing.
I would say that if you want to retire, either you do it or you play. So like he doesn't, you know, so I don't know. So he should make a decision if he wants to play or if he wants to retire.
Q. Do you think he will retire?
DINARA SAFINA: I think he will, but he was supposed to already retired last year, and he's still going. So, you know, he's a little bit unpredictable, so...
Q. That's the reason I am asking.
DINARA SAFINA: Because even I sometimes don't know what's gonna. Because we were not supposed to play Hopman Cup. At the end the year he say, No, I'm retiring. I'm not gonna play with Hopman Cup. And then I was like, okay, I have to go to play with somebody else.
Of course for me it's nicer to play with my brother. And then after two weeks, No, I'm playing Hopman Cup. I'm like, Okay, so just maybe one day before I should ask, So you are there or you're not coming?
So he's a little bit unpredictable.
Q. He came, but it was a strange face. (Laughter.)
DINARA SAFINA: When I open his room -- I mean, I went to his room and he open the door and I look at him, I say, What now happen?
Q. What's new?
DINARA SAFINA: Yeah. He goes, Nothing. I had a fight. I go, Okay. Great. It's likely he didn't had anything -- I mean, in Moscow everything can happen, you know, especially it happened in the nightclub. So I mean, somebody could have easily knife or gun.
So, I mean, for these thing you just...
Q. And for sure not for women reasons?
DINARA SAFINA: No. As far as I know, it was not for women reason. I mean, I wasn't there so I don't know. He said he sort it out, so I'm trying not to go into his business.
Q. Are you jealous about girlfriend of your brother, or not?
DINARA SAFINA: No, never. No, this is -- because this was also like it was funny for me, because I never -- all of them, like I'm really like getting good with them, and then of course is disappointing when he bumps them.
Then I feel in the middle, because like I'm good with them but they fight, and I don't know which side to take. For me it's also not a nice situation because I'm like in the middle between two of them.
Of course I feel sorry for the girl because she love him and then she still wants to get with him, and then I don't know. I'm like, Okay. I'm communicating with one and then the other one. (Laughter.)
Q. Who plays more with dolls when you were children?
DINARA SAFINA: He was playing more with the cars obviously than me. I had Barbies. At one stage I was playing like tournaments, and if I would win a tournament my mom would buy me a Barbie. So I like Barbies a lot.
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Post by memtennis on May 5, 2009 20:38:23 GMT 3
Awesome find! Love to hear the inside scoop from Dinara.. So funny about her becoming friends with the girlfriends and then she is disappointed when he dumps them!
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Post by SAFINNO1 on May 16, 2009 19:58:25 GMT 3
FINAL REMATCH
'Millennium Challenge' Against Safin Slated for Monday July 27
Rematch of 2000 US Open Final Kicks Off 2009 LA Tennis Open
May 13, 2009
LOS ANGELES - Pete Sampras, the 14-time Grand Slam Champion who held the No. 1 ranking for a record 286 weeks, will return to the LA Tennis Center at UCLA this summer for the "Millennium Challenge" as part of the 83rd annual LA Tennis Open.
Sampras, a two-time LA Tennis Open champion, will take the court on opening night, July 27, for the "Millennium Challenge," a rematch of the 2000 US Open final against Russian Marat Safin. Safin claimed the first of his two career Grand Slam titles with that win over Sampras in New York, and holds a 4-3 edge over the American in professional matches. Safin won their last meeting, which came in the fourth round of the 2002 Australian Open.
"We're thrilled that Pete Sampras, perhaps our greatest champion, is coming back to the LA Tennis Open," Tournament Director Bob Kramer said. "This will be an outstanding way to kick off our event in 2009. Pete had a great fan following when he played here during his career, and this will be a great way for tennis fans to get to see him play again. It's hard to believe it's been nine years since he and Marat played in the US Open final. The rematch on July 27 should be some great tennis."
In addition to this Monday night match against Sampras, Safin will play in the main draw of the LA Tennis Open. It will be the sixth appearance for the Russian in the tournament, having gone 6-5 with two quarterfinals in his previous efforts in LA. A former World No. 1, the 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open are among Safin's 15 career titles. Safin, who has said he will retire at the end of the 2009 season, is the first of the 28-player field to be confirmed, with additional entrants to be announced in the coming weeks.
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Post by annie on May 18, 2009 10:05:49 GMT 3
Oooh, Millennium rematch...sounds fun.
On the other article, Dina's intv. What kind of question was that? Who played more with dolls?
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Post by justsafin on Jun 12, 2009 10:07:44 GMT 3
Wimbledon 2009: Marat Safin ready for smashing send offwww.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/5488471/Wimbledon-2009-Marat-Safin-ready-for-smashing-send-off.htmlAs any rock star throwing a television set out of a hotel window should be able to tell you, smashing things can become a cliché. And yet Marat Safin has always maintained a certain style and flair as he trashes, mangles and crumples tennis rackets. By Mark Hodgkinson Published: 9:36PM BST 09 Jun 2009 Marat Safin ready for smashing send off No regrets: Marat Safin insists that he will not miss tennis once he retires from the ATP Tour at the end of the season Photo: EPA Practice makes perfect, and apart from "game, set and match, Federer", the most frequently spoken words by the world's tennis umpires must be "racket abuse, warning, Safin". Safin's matches at Queen's Club and at Wimbledon could contain more gratuitous violence than a Quentin Tarantino box-set. How many rackets has he broken over the course of his career? Oh, only about 700. When Safin, a former world No 1 and double grand slam champion, retires at the end of the season, the art of smashing rackets could go with him. The Russian is the 'Last of the Great Racket Trashers'. Still, Safin suggested that his racket suppliers, Head, would be relieved when he wrecks a frame for the last time. "I think Head will be happy that I'm leaving tennis now, as they won't have to produce as many rackets. Breaking all those rackets, it was worth it. "I'd guess I've smashed 700 rackets in my career, maybe more. That's not so many. The rackets probably cost about $200 each, so 700 rackets at $200 each, that's not so much really. That's OK, I think," he said. So that is at least $140,000 in broken frames, so approaching £90,000, and if you add on all the fines he has received over the years for racket abuse, the total bill for his racket-trashing could be close to a quarter of a million pounds. That is some habit. But, as Safin said, "it was worth it. Some people will remember me for breaking rackets, but that's OK, I don't mind". If Safin is probably going to miss the thrill of breaking rackets, he will not miss the life of a tennis player. "The routine kills me. It kills me. It's not interesting at all," said Safin, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last summer, and who will open his last grass-court season when, after a bye through the first round, he plays Belgium's Xavier Malisse in the second round of the Aegon Championships, this week's pre-Wimbledon tournament on the lawns of Queen's Club. "It's beautiful what people see on TV, when you're on the court, and there are all those people in the stadium," the 29-year-old said. "But nobody sees the other side of it, when you have to do the massages, when you have to practise, when you have to do a lot of things. I haven't been able to do a lot of the things I want to do. "You can't have a late dinner before a match, you have to be careful about what you're eating, you can't go for a drink late at night with anyone. Everything has to be on schedule. Also, after a certain time, you live in a state of what feels almost like continuous stress. I want to get out of it, just so that I'm able to breathe." The pressure to improve has worn down Safin. "Every week, you are thinking, 'I need to perform, I need to practise, I need to improve, I need to work out, I need to make sure I don't get injured, I need to go to the gym again, I need to practise for more hours'. The whole thing, it takes a lot of energy. It reaches a point where you just don't have the energy to do it anymore." There is no sadness on Safin's part that he is leaving tennis. "I love tennis, but I can see there is plenty of life outside tennis. It's not like it's the centre of the world," he said. "I want to live my life fully and do different things." Safin's first grand-slam title came when he hit Pete Sampras off the court at the 2000 US Open, and he won his second major by beating Lleyton Hewitt in the final of the 2005 Australian Open. "I hate to talk about my achievements. I won those two grand slams. I won. That's it. That's what I did. I hate it when people ask me about winning those two tournaments," he said. "They seem to think that I changed the world. No, I did my job, and I got a beautiful cup and a beautiful cheque. That's it. Of course, it's nice, and it's beautiful. But I didn't change the world. Why would I want to shout about it to people?"
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Post by SAFINNO1 on Jun 14, 2009 22:55:52 GMT 3
Marat Safin: Hothead who cooled down
Known more for his tantrums than titles, Marat Safin tells Paul Newman how he regrets those excesses
Saturday, 13 June 2009
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EPA
Marat Safin, who will retire at the end of the year, reacts badly to dropping a point at the French Open this year
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Like a death-bed repentant, Marat Safin would like two things to be known before he departs this tennis life. First, he is grateful to the Association of Tennis Professionals, whose bank balance would no doubt look far less healthy but for the many fines he has paid over the years, for "all the help they gave given me". Secondly, he has no problem with umpires and thinks they have no problem with him. "People understand," Safin says.
What everyone in tennis understands is that the sport will be a less interesting world without the 29-year-old Russian, who is retiring at the end of the year. Safin has been one of the game's biggest draws, even if he has spent most of the last nine injury-troubled years struggling to live up to the golden fortnight in the late summer of 2000, when he blasted Pete Sampras off court – the American was unbeaten in his previous eight Grand Slam finals – to win the US Open at the age of 20.
Some of that interest in Safin, of course, is similar to that of rallying enthusiasts who seek out the most dangerous bend in the forest. He has always been a car crash waiting to happen, a time bomb ready to explode. He has kept racket companies in business – he reckons he smashes about 50 rackets a year – and there is barely an umpire alive who has not been poisoned by the venom from his tongue.
"I've had good times and bad times," Safin says as he reflected on his career. "That's me. That's how I am. I'm really lucky and I'm happy that the ATP have allowed me to do what I want to do on the court. They've been nice to me throughout the years and that's made it much easier for me to play this way. If they had been really strict I would have paid so many fines. I really appreciate the help they've given me."
How does he see his relationship with umpires? "A lot of people probably get pissed off with me, but they have their job and I have mine. It's not like any of us are doing this for free. Of course there are occasions when you go over the limit, but that's part of the game. And I'm pretty sure that referees in soccer hear far worse things.
"I behaved terribly a couple of times, but people understand. It's never been a case of me getting angry with anybody. It was a case of getting angry with myself. I might have had a different point of view with a few umpires, but after the match everything is finished. I argued with an umpire recently and apologised to him afterwards. He said: 'I understand, I understand.' It was just in the heat of the moment during the match. Afterwards everything was cool."
Did he throw rackets as a teenager? "I did, but my parents weren't really happy about it. I was very competitive. I hated losing. No matter what, I had to win."
If there is a hint of weariness in his voice it is no surprise. Ever since Safin revealed his retirement plans at the start of the year, almost every press conference – and probably every interview – has featured the same questions, which will no doubt be repeated when Wimbledon starts in nine days' time. Why is he retiring? What will he do after tennis? Does he think he has underachieved?
For the most part he answers with good grace, though when you ask the last one you sense that another racket might have been heading for the wheelie-bin if any had been at hand. "You can say that anyone should have won more," Safin says. "Federer, Sampras, Agassi, Rios, Krajicek, Kafelnikov, Ivanisevic – you could say that all of them should have won more, but this is tennis, this is sport. You cannot take all the chances you get. It's not as easy as it might look."
Safin won one more Grand Slam title, at the 2005 Australian Open, when he overcame Roger Federer 9-7 in the fifth set of one of the best matches of modern times before beating Lleyton Hewitt in the final. It was his last tournament victory. Safin made two other finals in Melbourne and helped Russia to win two Davis Cups, but his tally of 15 titles is a comparatively meagre return for a former world No 1 in his 11th year on the professional circuit.
Until his run to last year's semi-finals, Safin's best showing at Wimbledon had been a solitary quarter-final appearance in 2001. He remembers how he lost his first match at the All England Club to Andrei Medvedev 11 years ago. "It was a weird feeling, a weird sensation," Safin says. "I didn't like the feeling of playing on grass. I felt like I was going to fall over the whole time. And that feeling stuck with me for a long time, because I wasn't comfortable moving around. I felt I couldn't play, I couldn't run, I couldn't do anything on grass."
Safin contends that he would have achieved much more had it not been for injuries, the latest of which – a back problem – kept him out of this week's Aegon Championships at Queen's Club. "I wish I could have won a lot more tournaments, but I got injured every time I played well," he says. "I was making comebacks every single year. That makes it difficult mentally. It causes a lot of stress. It's not a lot of fun.
"The knee injury I suffered in 2005 has ruined my last four years. It was eight months before I could start walking normally. I was limping and the doctor said to me: 'It will be a miracle if you play again.' He said the last resort would be an operation, but that might have left me with a limp for the rest of my life. I decided not to take the chance and I'm lucky now that I'm not limping any more."
Should he have been like his sister, Dinara, who trains ferociously hard? "She loves to work. I just don't believe that you need to go out there and work for eight hours. But if you love doing that, why not? But is Federer going to go out there and work 10 hours every day? I think it's too much. I think you need to spend some of your time doing things other than hitting tennis balls over a net."
A poll of readers by the TennisReporters website recently voted Safin, along with Ana Ivanovic, as the game's "Sexiest Player of the Year" for the fourth time in a row. He contends that for the most part a player's life is extremely tedious but admits that "sometimes we can get out and have some fun".
Two years ago Safin was so disenchanted with tennis that he abandoned the tour in order to join a Himalayan expedition climbing Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain on the planet. He now talks mysteriously about "a few projects" he is considering on retirement, though he rules out commentating and coaching. "Life is waiting for me after tennis," he says with a smile. In Paris last month a reporter said he had heard that Safin wanted to paint. "You're crazy," Safin says. "I'd rather play tennis than be a painter. Trust me."
A smashing time: Marat's moments of madness
May 2004, French Open
Safin was docked a point against Felix Mantilla after pulling down his shorts to celebrate winning a vital point. "It just happened," he said afterwards. "I felt it was a great point for me and I felt like pulling my pants down. Nobody complained. I thought it was entertaining and I was trying to make the game fun. I'm working my arse off on court, it's a full stadium, the crowd are behind me. There are officials who are trying to destroy the sport. It's going down the drain."
June 2004, Wimbledon
The former Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, came to watch Safin play on No 2 Court, but he still smashed his racket and swore at the umpire during his defeat by Dmitry Tursunov. "I give up on Wimbledon," Safin said after the match. "This is definitely not the tournament for me. I give up spending time on these courts. I give up on practising before the tournament, just to prepare myself for better results. I hate it."
July 2008, Wimbledon
Safin's best run at SW19 ended in a semi-final defeat to Roger Federer. He threw his racket on the grass and then hurled it with all his strength against a chair, earning a warning for racket abuse. Safin once said that it was reasonable to break a racket or to smash a chair, but "you can't destroy a racket and a chair in the same match, as there has to be a limit – otherwise this is the tennis of a sick person".
January 2009, Perth
Safin arrived in Australia sporting two black eyes after celebrating the new year in Russia. He saw the tournament doctor on arrival and asked for his first match to be delayed. "I won the fight, I'm good, I'm OK," he said. "I got in trouble in Moscow but it's OK, I can survive. It's just a small problem. I wasn't in the right place at the right time."
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Post by SAFINNO1 on Jun 19, 2009 12:39:31 GMT 3
Former Wimbledon ace Greg Rusedski stepped in to lend tennis pro Marat Safin a change of clothing yesterday when the Russian turned up in yellow for the Fortis Classic at London's snooty Hurlingham Club, which has a strict whites-only on-court dress code.
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Post by SAFINNO1 on Jul 15, 2009 17:07:42 GMT 3
Q. How competitively are you taking the match with Marat? It's a great way for you to sort of relive the old days when you played that great final. Are you going out there looking to take a scalp or have some fun?
PETE SAMPRAS: I think a little bit of both. We want to have some fun, a lighthearted match. At the same time he's competitive, I'm competitive. He's not going to want to lose to someone that's close to 40. All these matches against the current guys, I want to play well. I don't want to embarrass myself. If I can pull off a set, I'm ecstatic. If I can win the match, that's even better.
For me, as I can tell you now, having hit three or four days, I'm not nearly as good as I used to be. I don't move as well. To play one match every four months, it's a little unsettling. I'm not building off anything. I hopefully can find my game kind of through the first set and see where it goes from there.
It's competitive, but we're having fun. When the point starts, I'm going to want to win the point.
Q. How would you rate your chances against Safin in the match coming up?
PETE SAMPRAS: Not great to actually win the match. He's playing a lot. He's playing every day. I'm so sporadic with my tennis, it's a tough deal. Play every four months, it's not easy to find your confidence, to find your rhythm. It's one of those things where I just have to find it as we go, and that's not always easy, even when I was back in my prime.
I want to play well and do some things I used to be able to do, but obviously I'm not quite as sharp as I used to be.
Q. Have you been training at all?
PETE SAMPRAS: Yeah, I've been hitting some balls, stepping it up here over the next couple weeks, go out there and do it.
Q. Pete, can you talk a little bit about the relationship you've had with Marat over the years. You mentioned that you consider him a friend. I wonder who you may be still in touch with on the tour and what your relationship is with him.
PETE SAMPRAS: Well, Marat and I have always gotten along very well when we were playing. He's a really nice guy, great player, showed what he could do especially at the US Open the one year, he tuned me up pretty good. He's an expressive guy on the court, shows emotion. Off the court, he's a happy go lucky guy. I was pretty reserved when I was playing, to myself. For whatever reason, he and I seemed to get on really well. We practiced quite a bit together.
You know, he's a champion. He got to No. 1. He won a major, I think two majors. It's sad to see him go because I think he brought a lot to the sport. Haven't sort of kept in contact with him. But certainly when I see him, we'll talk about some of our matches. He's always asking me, when Paul was coaching Henman, he would ask Paul, How is Pete doing? He was always just a personable guy, really nice guy, and someone that I've always gotten along really well with.
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