Articles about Marat

[maryb]

LMAO. It's the last line that gets me. My Big Pixie should now go do a PhD in philosophy. ;D I'm definitely going to miss him. He's so droll, he's practically Scottish. ;D

FG


by Bill Simons at Inside Tennis

We blew it.

No question about it.

Call it neglect or indulgence, or simple short-sightedness — whatever. But tennis is facing a crisis. All our great characters — those bigger-than-life entertainers who captured our imagination with far more than forehand winners are now an endangered species.

Right there — on the dreadful edge of extinction — is perched that unique sub-species of humanity, those let-er-rip tennis players in the tradition of Ilie Nastase, Vitas Gerulaitis, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Yannick Noah and Goran Ivanisevic, great personalities who continually brought sass ‘n sizzle to stuffy ol’ tennis; fellows who insisted that life was just too short to be reigned in by dreary rulebooks, bothersome code penalties, snooty suits in flawless blazers or, God forbid, the game’s longstanding ethos/post-Victorian propriety — “Well-played, lad. Well-played.”

Now we will be left to stare into a certain gray monotone, the humdrum of reality. The last of the great characters, Marat Safin, is fading in the dusk, on the dreary cusp of retirement.

Whether winning when he wasn’t supposed to (the ‘00 U.S. Open against Sampras) or losing when he should have won (the ‘02 Aussie Open final against Thomas Johansson) — Safin was always good value. Who else could confide about a match: “I was trying to give up, but I couldn’t.” Only Safin could give us possibly the best existential take on confidence in the history of sport. “Confidence is like love,” he informed us. “When you look too hard, you don’t find it. When you let it come naturally, it happens.” Of one loss to a journeyman, he said, “I didn’t like playing today. I am not a morning person.” He was once fined for not trying.

Like Nastase, Safin had a penchant for mooning linespersons (just ask those red-faced French Open officials). Like Gerulaitus, he liked the ladies. His Friends Box (often crowded with the curviest of young lasses in high stilettos and low cut frocks) was a gawker’s delight. Like Noah, he could be the life of the party. Like Connors, he saw the game as entertainment. He had a droll sense of humor, like Ivanisevic, that reduced cynical writers to belly laughs. And as with Mac, he felt it his sworn duty to crush rackets: he smashed an unofficial record of 48 in ‘99 and heartily defended his swath of mass destruction by playing his chi or shakti card. “I’m not a complete nutcase,” he argued. “Sometimes breaking a racket…let’s out the bad energy and then you get calmer.”

Sunken eyes, somber woe-is-me voice, brooding and put upon ‘tude, for Safin our world was both a whimsical farce and a cautionary domain — unfair and imposing.

Yes, his game was erratic and his career arc wobbly. After he shocked Sampras to win the ‘00 U.S. Open, conventional wisdom insisted he would soon be The Next Great One. But little did we know this was Marat Safin. Soon his career was stalled by a string of injuries and a less-than-intense work ethic. Yes, he won one of the most well played matches of the decade, a classic five-set victory over Federer in the ‘05 Aussie Open semis, and went on to ruin the dream of Lleyton Hewitt, the seemingly unconquerable local hero.

But all the while he was consistent in launching controversial opinions. Here was an equal opportunity abuser.

Of the U.S. Open he said, “There are constant transport problems…The food is unbearable. You get dried pizza, which has been lying around for about five hours, coffee is black water. And after September 11, the police have become animalistic — they are everywhere, questioning you…If you say something wrong you will be taken to police headquarters. You’re forced to take shoes off at the airport…This makes me mad.”

Not that he was a Wimbledon cheerleader. While many adore the First Church of Tennis, Marat complained, “You have to wear white, be nice and polite to people.” And then there was his infamous spaghetti rant: “I do not like this tournament. We get 20 pounds for lunch. I have a coach and a masseuse, and one portion of the most uneatable spaghetti costs 12 pounds. A portion of tasteless strawberries with cream from a sachet costs five pounds, coffee, another five. The rest of the food is horrible-fish and chips…What’s really unappealing is disrespect. How can you give such a treatment to people?”

Perhaps, not surprisingly, Safin had a resonance with the people of France. There, claimed writer Andrew Parker, it wasn’t hard to “see why the Parisians were so keen on him. He shares many of their qualities, being mercurial, grumpy, dramatic and occasionally prone to staying out late. Added to which, he’s named for a hero of the French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat.”

Historians will inform you that Jean-Paul Marat was famous for his impassioned protestations. And so was Marat Safin. His basic take on tennis was simple. It had suffered dearly from the triumph of the control freaks. “All the people who run the sport have no clue,” asserted Safin. “It’s a pity that tennis is going down the drain…You’re not allowed to do this, you’re not allowed to do that. You’re not allowed to speak…It’s just ridiculous…Every year it gets worse.”

But mighty Marat — no matter how dishwater-dull tennis may have become, it’s still a game of results and the erratic results of a former No. 1 (who both heroically led his nation to Davis Cup triumph over France in ‘02 and Argentina in ‘06 saw his ranking dip to No. 104 in ‘06 and lost to the virtually unknown Jesse Levine in the first round this year at Wimbledon) drew a wide range of overly simple or perhaps far too complex analyses.

Marat himself was fond of accessing his losses by simply stating the obvious. “Whatever I did was wrong,” he would proclaim. And his sister, Dinara Safina — the ‘I-too-can-brood’ world No. 1 (who in some ways is a less intense, less flamboyant female version of her older brother), famously quipped, that whatever Marat has done, she wants to do the opposite.

But others were prone to impose nuanced complexities on his game and why he fell short. For instance, of Safin’s two-fisted backhand, John Jeremiah Sullivan wrote: “He pounds to a stop at the last second and performs the daintiest little touch-drop volley. The effect of this maneuver is a bit like seeing a pterodactyl that was flying straight at you suddenly shift into a moth and flutter away.”

To Sullivan, “Safin’s relationship to the game is fundamentally aesthetic…What he cares about most is playing beautiful tennis, which for Safin means playing perfectly. That he occasionally achieved this is sort of cruel…[his incredible play at] the U.S. Open final against Sampras in 2000 had hurt…Every time he stepped on a court he expected to play that way.”

Many observers simply dismissed Safin as an underachiever. Unlike the greats — Roger, Rafa, Pete, Andre and Lendl — Marat only had indifferent ambitions and squandered his abundant talents. Life was just too alluring. Yes, his mother was a severe tennis taskmaster, Russia’s answer to Gloria Connors - with a tennis academy. But Safin was just not the type to buy into the sometimes soul-deadening lockstep of fierce conditioning and laser-like focus that produces that most rare of diamonds - the dominant champion.

Of course, Safin adeptly spun how he lost the cruelest battle in sports — the game of expectations. He didn’t hesitate to remind critics of his many injuries, especially his knee, and how for years he played in pain. Then he would follow up with a disarming theory. “You know what,” he contended. “In the history of tennis, everybody’s an underachiever — every single player. Agassi should have been winning, I don’t know, 15 Grand Slams. Sampras should have been winning 20. Federer should have 25. [Marcello] Rios at least five…It’s like everybody’s underachiever. Everybody could do better.”

But now it’s clear. There is no one on the scene now who can step up with personality, originality and charm to fill the critical role of “tennis character” as Marat has done for many a season. The Mighty Federer is Swiss-contained, a smoothly run brand. Rafa is way beyond polite. Murray is a sober, sometimes sullen Scot. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils are French works in progress. Yes, Roddick has a wicked, frat-boy humor, but now he’s a married man deep into his career whose wild and crazy side is primarily in evidence in the locker room and his pressroom zingers don’t really translate into some sort of broadly defined rebel, comic or character. As for Novak Djokovic, the once hilarious mime, with his spot-on imitations, was a spontaneous delight before certain of his fellow players, with their penchant for control and propriety, bristled no way and he reigned himself in.

Yannick Noah once said players each have their own roles: the clown, the rebel, the robot. And with Safin’s pending retirement we mourn the departure of what may be the game’s last true character: moody Marat with his lovely ladies, predictable protests and sky-is-falling mindset; a Russian soul minted in Moscow’s deep winter angst and shaped by the high intensity spotlight of international sport, the high-life joys of metro discos and the ‘Melbourne today, Monte Carlo tomorrow’ jet set ethos; a big appealing charmer who simultaneously cherished fun and perfected the craft of compulsive complaint.

Yet, in the end, even morose Marat conceded, “I can’t complain, I’ve managed to do pretty well in my career.” After all, he admitted, “tennis saved me from a life of picking up bottles in Moscow.”

[Annie]

Interview with Marat Safin
Thursday, 23 July 2009 01:16 Shravan Chopra
www.thesportscampus.com/20090722 ... view-safin

Marat Safin will kick off the 2009 LA Tennis Open with the "Millennium Challenge" against Pete Sampras on Monday, July 27. It will be a rematch of the 2000 US Open final, which the Russian won to claim the first of his two career Grand Slam titles.
A former World No. 1, Safin also claimed the 2005 Australian Open championship, and owns 15 titles in his career. In addition to playing the Monday night match against Sampras, Safin will make his sixth main draw appearance in the LA Tennis Open. He has a less than flattering 6-5 lifetime record in LA, including a pair of quarterfinal finishes, and has announced 2009 will be his final season on the ATP World Tour.

As a follow-up to our interaction with Pete Sampras last week, TheSportsCampus.com had an opportunity to catch up with Marat Safin on the eve of the LA Open and speak to him about the upcoming match, his expectations from the rest of his retirement finale, his sister's success and her battle with Serena Williams at the top of the women's rankings, and his plans after retirement.

Here's a snapshot of what he had to say...

Q. You'll be doing the exhibition with Pete Sampras. Could you just tell us a little bit about that first great win you had at the US Open over Pete, and how you look that now and what it meant for you in your career.

MARAT SAFIN: Well, first of all, it looks like it was yesterday, but it already pass almost ten years. We're kind of looking backwards, and it's really a warm feeling when he have an achievement like beating Sampras in the final of US Open.

It was my first breakthrough actually, and it gave me the chance on becoming No. 1 in the world. Thanks to Pete that he wasn't at his best that day. And I'm really happy to repeat the match on Monday.So I would love to play against him.

Q. Pete told us the other day you guys are kind of close. It's a very odd combination, because Pete Sampras is a very different kind of a guy from you. Can you talk about the relationship you have? Talk about the kind of guy he is and the kind of guy you are.

MARAT SAFIN: Yes, well, we are a little bit different. Few years we are different. But you know what, when I first came out on the tour it was maybe a time when you come into the locker room, you know, you just don't know anybody. It always seemed like you could talk with him.

For me, it was honor just to talk to him. He was pretty normal and you could chat with him for a few minutes. It's always nice to see the big guys are also people and are very down earth and very relaxed.

It was a big, big pleasure of sharing -- I shared the locker room with him.

Q. We know that you're a very charismatic sportist, and so was Gustav Kuerten. We would like to know if Gustav Kuerten was one of your biggest rivals of your career?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, well he kind of stole from me the No. 1 in 2000. I lost a couple of finals, one in Hamburg and one in Indianapolis, which there was basically a few points off becoming No. 1 in the world. Basically I lost that losing to him in the final. So if I would win one final, it would change the position as well at the end of the year.

He's always been a tough opponent, you know. He was playing very aggressive, very nice guy. But unfortunately I'm pretty pissed at him, because he stole my No. 1. (Laughter.)

Q. Do you think that victory against Sampras could make the rest of your final season more motivating, a good exhibition in Los Angeles?

MARAT SAFIN: First of all, it will be a nice to play. It will be a night match probably, and it will be nice. It would be nice to play against him. I would love to remember the feeling when I was in the finals. It will be nice to repeat it.

Q. You've told us you're retiring at the end of the year. Do you wish maybe you didn't tell us so you would just be able to play the season out and not have to deal with all the questions?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, but it came out. It came out, and I'm not really -- people have been asking too many questions. But anyway, I don't care about it. I know what I want. I know what I want to do. I'm pretty satisfied with my career, and I'm not changing my decision.

Q. When Pete retired, he didn't go near tennis at all. He played a lot of golf and he kept to himself and; et himself slept in, he told us. He was very excited not to be on schedules and not have to play. Other players have said that same thing. I'm wondering, do you have any specific plans, say, you want to go to sit on the beach for six months, or are you not thinking about that? What is your fantasy for taking it easy when you retire?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, of course I'm gonna take it easy at the end of the season after I retire, because I need a couple months just to relax and just to realize that you really retired.

Because you're always on schedule and always on a flight and always running to practice and always doing something around tennis. It's kind of tough to, you know, like change your mind.

You need a couple of months to realize that it's over and start a new life. Of course it has to be somewhere nice where you can just be relaxed without any stress.

Q. What do you imagine as a great way to live for a guy in his 30s and has a fair amount of money? Is there a special thing, passion, or interest that you have that you would like to realize somehow? I don't know, like you did some hiking mountain climbing? What do you look forward to in retirement?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, there's plenty of things to do. I'm gonna stay active and do something different. Definitely not gonna retire and then sit on my -- sit on the beach and do nothing and just relaxing for the rest of my life.

I'm gonna be active and do my things. I have a few projects. I don't know, I'm gonna be working, so...

Q. Can you tell us what those projects are?

MARAT SAFIN: No, no. They're my things and it's okay. I don't want to share it yet.

Q. All these years, I don't remember your being asked about your name. What was with your mom and Jean-Paul Marat? What's the story there? Can you give us a little insight on that?

MARAT SAFIN: Oh, I have no idea. I guess she liked the name. It's pretty rare in Russia to hear this name, so it's kind of nice to have the name that not many people have.

Q. Yeah. Do you know anything about the historical figure, Jean-Paul Marat? Any thoughts about him? He was quite a character.

MARAT SAFIN: Obviously he's a French revolutionary, and he been a pretty famous guy in Europe, mostly in France. But nothing to do with my --I mean, I don't think my mother and father named me after him. I'm pretty sure about that.

Q. What are you doing now? It's pretty late in Moscow, isn't it?

MARAT SAFIN: No, it's 9:00 in the evening.

Q. Pete is the ultimate competitor and showed last year in some exhibition games with Roger that he still possesses all the weapons to give anyone a run for their money. Do you see this match as a bit of lighthearted fun, or do you expect a tough battle out there?

MARAT SAFIN: No, it's gonna be mostly fun because I don't have to show to anybody anything, and he doesn't have to. Just to play there, remember good times, have fun so that the people have fun. Work some nice points so the match will be nice.

It's all about fun. It's not about to show to each other who is the best one and whatever. I know he was much better player than me. He achieve much more than me, and I don't want to argue with that. I don't need to. I just want to have fun.

Q. You're not too far away from retirement. Any special memories that you would like to share with us?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, just been some great moments. There have been so many things that I lived through and so many good decisions that I made, and couple of bad decisions. But actually it's good for the experience in life, and I'm pretty happy that everything what happened to me, it actually happened and was a really, really nice trip all those 12 years.

Just I can't pick a specific one that made me happy, because every moment was special and every moment was a different stage of life. It's difficult to pick one.

Q. You've got a handful of tournaments left to play. What would be the perfect way to say good-bye to the tennis world?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, if I would win a couple matches here and there it would be great.

Q. Your sister is keeping the family flag flying high at the moment. She is, however, yet to win the elusive first Grand Slam. Do you think it's just a matter of time, or something significant that she needs to change in her game physically or mentally to climb to the next step?

MARAT SAFIN: No, it's just more just take some time. She been unexpected the No. 1 in the world, because not many people really believe that she would become one day, and finally she became.

But the next step, maybe she was not really ready for that, now she's been through a few finals and she's more experienced and the next one will be hers.

I'm pretty sure sooner or later she gonna make it. Once she gonna crack one down, first one, and then much more will come. She's really competitive and really tough girl. She was crack it down, it just takes a bit of time.

Q. Dinara has remained extremely graceful in light of Serena Williams' criticism of the rankings and how she deserves to be the real No. 1. Is there anything you would like to say to that matter?

MARAT SAFIN: No, it's okay. It's a girls' matter. It's just girls talk. Well, they're two big players. Serena is more experienced and she been on tour much more time. She been out there for much longer time.

My sister, she's a new one, basically new No. 1 in the world. The rivalry, the next time they're gonna play, it's gonna be a nice match. Serena, she is a nice girl, but it's her own fault. They are tough actors, and it's what happens.

But I think it's good to see that it happens on the tour that they are fighting for No. 1 and giving a little bit of trouble to each other, but without any harm to each other.

Q. Tennis has been so enriched with so many great characters: Nastase, Gerulaitis, Connors, McEnroe. With your going, do you think you're one of the last great characters? Does that piss you off in some way?

MARAT SAFIN: Thank you very much to put me in the same as all these guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the honor. For tennis, I hope there is much more to come. Because tennis, actually they need somebody not -- a little bit not crazy, but just a little bit untender, but it has to come natural.

So I'm really hoping there will be somebody on the tour. In the early years, like 20, 15 years ago, it was much more character. But over time it only became more as business and just trying to be less, less, and less like that.

Like you said, Mats, Andreas are kind of -- but I'm sure it's a circle. Sooner or later it will come, people like that, and tennis will live another nice era.

Q. Can you see anybody? Maybe Tsonga or Monfils?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, they are good players, great players, but let's see what they gonna do. They have a great potential, but the result will come at the end. You can be somewhat close to the final but never achieve anything, you know.

So like quarterfinals and semifinals don't really count. Only finals and the winners. Mostly winners. So the rest, quarters, semis, it's nice, but it's not big enough to become a class tennis player.

Q. With a personality like yours, what was the toughest part of this way of life? What were the things that were really hardest for you to deal with?

MARAT SAFIN: Throughout the years, probably continuous, not stress, but some kind of thing about -- you have to live with tennis 24/7.

There is no way you're gonna leave and like for days relax and not think about it. Sooner or later you're gonna think about tennis. This is the toughest part. Once it gets into your head, you really think you have to travel and practice and defend the points here and there. It's in your mind.

So basically the mental game is a little bit the tough one. It brings a little bit slightly stress, because you are all the time depending on tennis.

[Dina]

Tennis exhibition date changed, Agassi now scheduled to play Safin



ASHEVILLE — The tennis exhibition scheduled Aug. 6 between Marat Safin and Novak Djokovic at the Asheville Civic Center has been cancelled.
Instead, Safin will appear in an exhibition on Aug. 28 at the Civic Center against eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi.
Safin, formerly ranked No. 1 in the world, has won two grand Slam titles. Agassi, 39, retired in 2006 having won 60 men's tour championships.


“We are honored to have such tennis greats as Andre and Marat play the very first Grand Slam Asheville,” said Brian Woods, the event’s promoter and a local sports agent. “This will be Andre’s first exhibition match against an active player since his retirement and the biggest tennis exhibition of the year.”

For more information on Grand Slam Asheville, visit www.grandslamasheville.com, or join the Grand Slam Asheville group on Facebook at


Tickets purchased for August 6 will be honored on August 28, or refunds can be obtained from the original point of purchase. Tickets for the Aug. 28 exhibition are on sale now through Ticketmaster and at the Civic Center box office. Prices for Grand Slam Asheville range from $49 to $200.
For VIP ticket packages, contact Alicia Kramer at [phone].
In a preliminary match, Roberson high senior MayaBlue Stauffer MacDowell is scheduled to play women's tour player Ashley Harkleroad, a 25-year-old tour player since 2000. Harkleroad, who has been ranked as high as 39th in the world, does not have a tour victory.

[Dina]

Message to Marat Safin: Show Us Your Magic One More Time



It is fitting that Marat Safin, the last of a dying breed of tempestuous and eccentric entertainers on the Professional tennis circuit, will play his last precious hours of Grand-Slam tennis at this year's U.S. Open.

It is fitting because, held both prior to and after Labor Day weekend, the U.S. Open always brings with it a touch of nostalgia.

Much like what is left of Safin's breathtaking natural ability on the tennis court, early September in New York reminds us that the summer is finally slipping away, and that soon all we'll have left is photographs plastered dolefully into scrapbooks, and fading memories of what was and what might have been.

What would make this summer especially sad for Safin fans, and for tennis in general, is another uninspired performance by the imposing 6'4" Russian who has always been long on talent, but to his detriment, almost fatally short on patience.

Dubbed "The Magical Misery Tour" by tennis.com's Tom Perrotta, Safin's farewell performance in 2009 has been morose at best.

The 29-year-old has been content to leave the big-time tennis to his kid sister, compiling an anemic 7-12 record and performing progressively worse in each Slam that he has appeared in.
Author Poll Results


But don't let the results fool you. The enigmatic Russian can still play (his run to the 2008 Wimbledon Semi's is proof) when he feels like it. The question this summer, as the American Slam approaches, will be more about Safin's desire to play than his ability to do so.

That is why I am sending this heartfelt message to Marat, in the hopes that he might shelve his jaded persona for a few weeks at the end of this summer.

If not for himself, then maybe for his little sister who I'm sure wouldn't mind being reminded of just how pristine her bloodlines are.

And if not for Dinara, then how about for us, the fans and journalists who've been rooting for you for the better part of 10 years, in spite of your painfully obvious indifference for the tour.

Please, Marat (I will get down on my knees if it helps), play this last Grand Slam like you mean it. Play it with heart and soul and focus, and most of all, patience.

I'm not asking you to repeat what you did in 2000, when you trampled over the legend Pete Sampras like he was a mere speed bump on your way to the No. 1 Ranking.

I'm not even asking that you do what you did last year at Wimbledon when you upset Novak Djokovic on your way to an improbable run all the way to the semis.

I'm just asking that you play the sport like you love the sport, because there is no way in hell that you don't love it...nobody plays tennis with the flair and power that you do if they don't love it.

Marat, I'm begging you, and I think I speak for all true tennis fans when I say this: Get that one foot that has been hanging out the door for most of 2009 and put it back on the tennis court.

Channel that fiery temper of yours into something positive. Make it to the second week and who knows what might happen?

Please Marat, play the 2009 U.S. Open like it will be your last, because this time it really will be.

[joanie]

Thank you Dina for the beautiful message to Marat,you have expressed epexactely how the majority of us (his fans) feel. We all love Marat and it gives us so much pain to see him lose so many first round matches
Let us hope the exhibition win over Pete Sampras will motivate him into winning a few more,we all want to
see him go out on a high
SO MARAT GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR AND GIVE US ALL SOME WINS AND MAKE US HAPPY BUNNIES .

[Dina]

oh no no no!!!!!!! I didn't write that! just an article I found and posted!!!! anyways u're welcome! I'm not such a hugh-spirited person anyways!lol!

[joanie]

Sorry Dina for getting in a muddle over the Message to Marat article but thanks for posting such a beautiful and sincere piece of work.Looks as if it might be working.Fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!

[SAFINNO1]

Andre Agassi will face off against Marat Safin at the Asheville Civic Center during The Grand Slam of Asheville on August 28. Former Top 40 WTA player and new mom Ashley Harkleroad will be featured in the preliminary match against a local high school player.

[SAFINNO1]

Tennis event still on, but without Agassi and Safin
Bob Berghaus • August 22, 2009 12:15 AM

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ASHEVILLE — Andre Agassi won't be playing in the Grand Slam of Asheville next Friday. Neither will Marat Safin.



The two headliners for the tennis exhibition at the Asheville Civic Center will be Rajeev Ram and Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo, not exactly household names in the tennis world.

Brian Wood, the promoter of the event, said Friday that he was forced to set high ticket prices, $49-$200, because of the reasonably low seating capacity (6,000) at the Civic Center.

With only 1,100 tickets sold earlier in the week Woods realized he was going to take a financial bath and made the decision to drop Agassi and Safin, both of whom were former No. 1 players.

Woods said regardless of ticket sales between now and Friday there will be an exhibition.

“The event will go on now,” said Woods. “My overhead cost has gone down considerably. There won't be any cancellation. We've already made that decision.”

Woods said tickets purchased for the Agassi-Safin match will be refunded. Tickets for the revised exhibition are priced at $20 and $25. He is still hoping to have a silent auction that will benefit Mission Children's Hospital.

The exhibition was initially scheduled for Aug. 6 between Safin and Novak Djokovic. A conflict with both players forced Woods to change the date and replace Novak with Agassi, a winner of eight Grand Slam titles before he retired in 2006.

Ram, who is from the United States, is ranked 121st on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour. Last month he won his first singles title, in Newport, R.I. Ramírez Hidalgo, from Spain, is ranked 104th in the world. He does not have a tour victory.

The preliminary match will still be between Ashley Harkleroad, a member of the Women's Tennis Association tour and MayaBlue Stauffer-MacDowell of Roberson.

“It's definitely disappointing that I won't be able to see them play,” Stauffer-MacDowell said. “But it will still be exciting for our tennis community.”

Woods said he is also hoping to bring in two other players from the men's tour to beef up the event.

“We could have cancelled altogether or move forward on a much lower scale and that's what we did,” Woods said. ““The guys coming are still world class players who play at an extremely high level.”

For information visit www.grandslamasheville.com

[Annie]

Oh damn, Giselle will be devastated. She paid a ton of money to go there

[maratsmaiden]

yes Annie - both me and Giselle coordinated going to this together, and were paying a small fortune for the VIP Experience... needless to say, we are both pretty devastated. We're considering trekking up to NY to see him at the US Open as a consolation... but, nothing will take the place of what we had in place for North Carolina... sad day indeed

I've been in touch with the organizer and the webby at the OS forum. If anyone wants details about what happened, feel free to PM me, or, I posted much of the conversation on MTF...

[davis]

Here Comes Goodbye: Marat Safin Steps Away From the Spotlight

Written on August 29, 2009 by Andrea Nay


There's a reason we refer to artists as tortured, and Marat Safin is no exception.

Tennis is an aesthetic sport. Matthew McGough of The Boston Globe wrote: "Underlying the cries of 'en fuego!' or 'straight butta' . . . is another, calmer term that might be used to describe this and other great sports moments of the highest order: beautiful."

Safin’s game, at its best and even at its worst, is breathtaking. The efficient, crisply hit serve. The enormous wingspan. The exacting volleys. The look to the heavens as he berates himself in Russian, Spanish, or English. The primal scream evoked each time he double-faults. The body. Even his notorious racquet-breaking is raw, honest, and deeply compelling.

Roger Federer famously said that he wishes to play beautifully for the fans. Safin shares that quality with his friend. But, Federer also has the "do whatever it takes to win" mentality. Marat doesn't. And, so, for Safin, the game, the set, and the match are not scored by points. They're scored by movements, much like brushstrokes on canvas. Every misstep, every errant splash of paint, throws a curve from which, often, he can’t recover.

Go back and watch the Charlie Rose interview in 2000 as Safin discusses his victory over Pete Sampras in Toronto: "I think he made me a present there, because he served a double fault on his match point, and he served double fault on my match point. So I can't tell that I beat him." Marat didn't feel he'd actually won because the very last point wasn't a winner.

Watch any match from the last ten years. Look at how frustrated he gets when he loses his serve. Then, by contrast, see how relatively calm he is after a win -- a small glimmer of a smile, a little nod to the crowd. You rarely see Safin pulling out a Chad Johnson touchdown dance or releasing the same kind of energy in victory as he does when he's mad. It's not about the outcome, after all. It's about perfectionism.

The reason, perhaps, is that Safin experienced the elusive "perfect match" once, too early. He was a 20-year-old ingénue with an improbable victory over Sampras in the 2000 U.S. Open. His career, though long, has arguably been downhill from there, as he tried despite injury to reach that level of greatness with every. single. backhand. His most lethal opponent, more often than not, is only himself. For Safin, the competition itself is boring. “I am not a player,” he says. It's the honing of his craft, the chasing of aces, that's kept the man with a fear of flying hopping flights to Madrid, Melbourne, and Miami the last nine years.

This week, Safin will carry his racquets to Arthur Ashe Stadium for his last Grand Slam appearance. He will bid his final adieu to tennis fans at Bercy in November. Where, then, do we place the big Russian in the long line of tennis greats? He will certainly be tapped for the Hall of Fame, but how will his game be stacked against the likes of Agassi, Ivanisevic, or Nadal? The answer isn't simple, just as judging an art contest is often futile. Viewing tennis as a game, one competitor wins by virtue of points. Considering it as an art form, each athlete must be judged through a different set of lenses. Nadal may play in striking black and white and do it stunningly, but Safin performs in cross-processed color, entrancing in a very different way.

Like any storied artist, he is an enigma. So much of what makes Marat Safin legendary has little to do with his conduct on the court and everything to do with his personality outside it. He is at the same time larger than life and quietly private. Friend Arnaud Casagrande once described him as the James Dean of tennis, while Marc Rosset has said Marat would immediately “sign up to be number one and at the same time unknown.”

We should be careful not to, as is the norm in the sports world, focus only on his statistics. Forget the win-loss record. Forget the number of titles. Forget the number of Grand Slam semis he reached. Think back, instead, to the excruciatingly beautiful and wicked down-the-line backhand, the deranged yell, and the shy smile. Recall the endearing, protective tone he used when discussing his parents and the more recent defense of his top-ranked sister. Remember the thousands of autographs he signed with grace despite debilitating setbacks. Count the number of fans who bought tickets just to catch a glimpse of him practice or who stayed up to all hours to watch his matches halfway around the world on internet feeds.

And then, there is the wit. Safin is press conference soundbite gold. From the side-splitting: "Never give up. Last year I was trying to give up but I couldn't.” To the profound: “We live because of the dreams.” What other player has been caught reading during changeovers? What other sportsman takes time off during the season to climb Cho Oyu? What other athlete would keep his under-the-radar manager, turn down lucrative endorsements, and declare, “Why have more, when this is enough at the moment?”

Marat Safin wouldn't want to be immortalized as a god or a hero, titles his Safinettes will likely bestow. "I did my job, and I got a beautiful cup and a beautiful cheque," he says. "That's it. I didn't change the world."

When the goodbye comes this fall, let's remember him as an artist. In that sense, as Martina Navratilova said, “he is perfect.”

[justsafin]

Aug 30, 2009 19:01:38 GMT 3 davis said:

Here Comes Goodbye: Marat Safin Steps Away From the Spotlight

Written on August 29, 2009 by Andrea Nay


There's a reason we refer to artists as tortured, and Marat Safin is no exception.

Tennis is an aesthetic sport. Matthew McGough of The Boston Globe wrote: "Underlying the cries of 'en fuego!' or 'straight butta' . . . is another, calmer term that might be used to describe this and other great sports moments of the highest order: beautiful."

Safin’s game, at its best and even at its worst, is breathtaking. The efficient, crisply hit serve. The enormous wingspan. The exacting volleys. The look to the heavens as he berates himself in Russian, Spanish, or English. The primal scream evoked each time he double-faults. The body. Even his notorious racquet-breaking is raw, honest, and deeply compelling.

Roger Federer famously said that he wishes to play beautifully for the fans. Safin shares that quality with his friend. But, Federer also has the "do whatever it takes to win" mentality. Marat doesn't. And, so, for Safin, the game, the set, and the match are not scored by points. They're scored by movements, much like brushstrokes on canvas. Every misstep, every errant splash of paint, throws a curve from which, often, he can’t recover.

Go back and watch the Charlie Rose interview in 2000 as Safin discusses his victory over Pete Sampras in Toronto: "I think he made me a present there, because he served a double fault on his match point, and he served double fault on my match point. So I can't tell that I beat him." Marat didn't feel he'd actually won because the very last point wasn't a winner.

Watch any match from the last ten years. Look at how frustrated he gets when he loses his serve. Then, by contrast, see how relatively calm he is after a win -- a small glimmer of a smile, a little nod to the crowd. You rarely see Safin pulling out a Chad Johnson touchdown dance or releasing the same kind of energy in victory as he does when he's mad. It's not about the outcome, after all. It's about perfectionism.

The reason, perhaps, is that Safin experienced the elusive "perfect match" once, too early. He was a 20-year-old ingénue with an improbable victory over Sampras in the 2000 U.S. Open. His career, though long, has arguably been downhill from there, as he tried despite injury to reach that level of greatness with every. single. backhand. His most lethal opponent, more often than not, is only himself. For Safin, the competition itself is boring. “I am not a player,” he says. It's the honing of his craft, the chasing of aces, that's kept the man with a fear of flying hopping flights to Madrid, Melbourne, and Miami the last nine years.

This week, Safin will carry his racquets to Arthur Ashe Stadium for his last Grand Slam appearance. He will bid his final adieu to tennis fans at Bercy in November. Where, then, do we place the big Russian in the long line of tennis greats? He will certainly be tapped for the Hall of Fame, but how will his game be stacked against the likes of Agassi, Ivanisevic, or Nadal? The answer isn't simple, just as judging an art contest is often futile. Viewing tennis as a game, one competitor wins by virtue of points. Considering it as an art form, each athlete must be judged through a different set of lenses. Nadal may play in striking black and white and do it stunningly, but Safin performs in cross-processed color, entrancing in a very different way.

Like any storied artist, he is an enigma. So much of what makes Marat Safin legendary has little to do with his conduct on the court and everything to do with his personality outside it. He is at the same time larger than life and quietly private. Friend Arnaud Casagrande once described him as the James Dean of tennis, while Marc Rosset has said Marat would immediately “sign up to be number one and at the same time unknown.”

We should be careful not to, as is the norm in the sports world, focus only on his statistics. Forget the win-loss record. Forget the number of titles. Forget the number of Grand Slam semis he reached. Think back, instead, to the excruciatingly beautiful and wicked down-the-line backhand, the deranged yell, and the shy smile. Recall the endearing, protective tone he used when discussing his parents and the more recent defense of his top-ranked sister. Remember the thousands of autographs he signed with grace despite debilitating setbacks. Count the number of fans who bought tickets just to catch a glimpse of him practice or who stayed up to all hours to watch his matches halfway around the world on internet feeds.

And then, there is the wit. Safin is press conference soundbite gold. From the side-splitting: "Never give up. Last year I was trying to give up but I couldn't.” To the profound: “We live because of the dreams.” What other player has been caught reading during changeovers? What other sportsman takes time off during the season to climb Cho Oyu? What other athlete would keep his under-the-radar manager, turn down lucrative endorsements, and declare, “Why have more, when this is enough at the moment?”

Marat Safin wouldn't want to be immortalized as a god or a hero, titles his Safinettes will likely bestow. "I did my job, and I got a beautiful cup and a beautiful cheque," he says. "That's it. I didn't change the world."

When the goodbye comes this fall, let's remember him as an artist. In that sense, as Martina Navratilova said, “he is perfect.”

WHAT A LOVELY ARTICLE BY ANDREA! She obviously wrote what I think about Marat yet I can never possibly manage to put in words so beautifully.

[SAFINNO1]

In praise of Safin -- the head case Story Highlights
Marat Safin appeared to be the future when he won the 2000 U.S. Open
Safin had the skill set to be Roger Federer, but lacked the consistency
Safin, who is playing his final Open, reminded us to expect only the unexpected

The game was never a grind for Marat Safin -- even when he took the 2000 U.S. Open title.
AP


NEW YORK -- We should've known when they wheeled the liquor cart into the press conference, bottles clinking, laughter rising. "Are you going to get drunk tonight?" someone asked Marat Safin. He was the new champion of Flushing Meadow then, at 20 a shockingly easy winner of the 2000 U.S. Open over the unbeatable Pete Sampras. "Between us?" he grinned. "I hope so."

We didn't know that night that he'd be, for the rest of the decade, pro tennis' biggest puzzle. All we saw in Marat Safin then was the total package: TV handsome, fluent in English, Spanish and Russian, oozing talent, humor, a biting intelligence. All we knew is that he had a killer backhand and an all-surface game, that he wasn't a grind: The liquor cart told us that. Marat looked like fun. He looked like the future.

We were all searching for the next star then. No one figured that a man can actually have too much charisma, that a searching mind can be the worst enemy of great physical gifts. The liquor cart was different, yes, but he was Russian and we added it up: Russians ... vodka ... sure. Who knew that he'd go down, even with another Grand Slam title and two more major finals, as one of the game's great wastes? As the head case who somehow gave head cases a good name? As a figure who still leaves even his devoted sister, Dinara, confused?

"Sometimes," the No. 1 player in the women's game said Tuesday, "it's not easy to understand my brother."

Dinara is, in tennis terms, not a bit like Marat: She desperately lives for the game he always could take or leave. "If Marat had had 10 percent of her dedication he'd have been the No. 1 player for 10 years," his manager, Ion Tiriac, said in Paris this summer. "If Safina had 10 percent of Marat's talent, she would be 10 years the No. 1 player."

All those Ifs. In the end -- and that's where we are here, at the 2009 U.S. Open, with the announced end of Marat's Grand Slam career, with the final run that begins Wednesday with his first-round match against Jurgen Melzer -- that's what head cases leave you with. Next to Roger Federer, Safin was always considered the man with the cleanest shots, the best hands; he could've been Federer, the line always goes, if he'd wanted it more. They ask the question still about Safin, from Moscow to Manhattan: What if?

"Once I asked Marat this question and I loved his answer," says 2009 French Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova. "Maybe it's not good for press, but he just says, 'If grandma would have balls, she would be a grandpa.' It's an expression we say it in Russian: If? What would happen if? But If didn't happen."

Mostly because Safin never wanted it to, not nearly enough. He was known throughout his career as much for his quips, his on-court rages, his hilarious complaints as his results, the flashy women cheering him in his box. Women have always fluttered about. "He's a very broad person," says Davis Cup teammate Dmitry Tursunov. "Not just about tennis, or about women. People give him labels: He's a womanizer. But it's hard not to be a womanizer if every woman jumps at you."

Once, Safin pulled down his pants to celebrate winning a spectacular point at the 2004 French Open -- the perfect encapsulation, really, of all, good and goofy, that he could do. Asked afterward to explain himself, he said, "I don't know why. Because ... because I did it. It just happened."

We tried to dig deeper. "Some people play a point, stupendous point, raise their fist in the air," someone asked in the press conference afterward. "I don't think I've ever seen anybody pull their pants down to celebrate winning a point. What in your mind said, Pull my pants down?"

"I don't know," Safin said. "I felt this way. I felt it was a great point for me. I felt like pulling my pants down. What's bad about it?"

We wanted Safin to care more, of course. We wanted him to want winning as much as the rest of the world wanted to win, the way Sampras and Federer, who once was a head case himself, learned to want to win. We wondered if it was his hard-driving mother, famed taskmaster Rausa Islanova, who made Marat so eager to escape to Spain when he was 13, who made him hold tennis at arm's length the rest of his career. We heard about his climbing in the Himalayas, remembered a visit to his echoing Miami apartment in 2001, the only personal effects his clothes and a thick novel by Paulo Coelho. He seemed to be searching. He seemed to find the world of pro tennis absurd.

Fellow Russian Anna Kournikova pulled up in a car that day, giggling and loose; Safin gave her a half-wave and hurried with his distinctive rolling gait into the lobby. The air was thick then with rumor about a marriage to hockey star Sergei Fedorov: Kournikova was another Russian star en route to underachievement. Asked how she was doing, she laughed and said, "Ahh, one guy says we're engaged, another says we're married. Next thing you know, some guy's going to say I got him pregnant."

It was a great line, funny and quick in a way Kournikova never allowed herself to be in public. By then her game, too, had gotten tangled up by people's attraction to her; she never found a way to undermine it by poking fun at herself, at that whole Anna Kournikova phenomenon, and for the first time Safin's distraction made a kind of sense. What better way to defuse the pressure -- all those expectations -- than to laugh at it? To moon it? To treat it with a mocking contempt?

"Safin might have done as well as he has because he didn't treat it as seriously," Tursunov says. "If he did, he'd probably be much more tense. He never asked for his talent. It's unfortunate that everybody sticks their opinion on him, but he doesn't think his life has been a downward spiral. And the best part is that he doesn't really give a crap."

We have seen his like since, of course. In recent years it has been easy to roll one's eyes at the Russians -- Elena Dementieva and her serving problems, the off-again, on-again careers of Anastasia Myskina and Kuznetzova, the current meltdowns suffered by Safina anytime she nears or plays a Grand Slam final. But from Bill Tilden to Pancho Gonzalez to Ilie Nastase to John McEnroe and beyond, no flag has been immune. Tennis has always been marbled by strains of self-loathing and self-destruction, by players at once entranced and repelled by the talent they wield.

"It was a function of tennis never being something I chose," Andre Agassi said of his early career late Monday. "It taught me some real harsh lessons, and I never hid how I felt. Some days it was pretty scary how much anger I could feel, how much fear I could feel, how much tennis could impact me."

We don't understand this. It's easier to embrace the grinds, the champions, the ones, like Agassi or Federer, who learn to ward off their demons and arrive at some sense of balance. They reassure us. They tell us it's possible. But maybe it's time to praise the other breed instead of attempting another quick burial; the head cases make the game compelling in a way the grinds can't. Safin will be missed, because he reminded us to expect only the unexpected.

"Andre had the problems with the head, Marat had problems with consistency; so did I, Dinara maybe she has something missing in her game," Kuznetsova says. "Everybody has a problem. Who's better is who fights and how far it goes. This is life: It's the same in the court and out of the court. It's talent what we have, or willingness we have to work. That's why it's so interesting to live, no?"

[jenhatter06]

Marat v Lleyton ... it ends on Lleyton, but interesting to see the dichotomy between the two

Hewitt finds grace as Safin departs

NEW YORK -- Once upon a time there were two men, Marat and Lleyton. Born only a year apart, they had lots in common. They were both colleagues on the ATP Tour. They both became top players at an early age, breaking through by beating a guy named Pete in the final to win the U.S. Open. Each would win an additional Grand Slam title. They even both had a kid sister trying to make it on the women's tour.

But the similarities only went so far. Marat was tall and built solidly, a prodigious talent who hit the hell out of the ball, especially with his stop-traffic-gorgeous backhand. Lleyton stood under 6 feet and weighed 150 pounds soaking wet -- which he often was, given how sweaty he got chasing tennis balls. In the eyes of no beholder did his game contain beauty. It was all based on toil and trouble, on hustle and grit.

Marat and Lleyton had different personalities, too. Apart from looking like a model, Marat had a generous spirit. He was funny and wry and self-effacing, charming anyone crossing his path. He lived in Monte Carlo and drove fast cars and dated beautiful women, sometimes simultaneously. Even when he smashed his rackets or said things that didn't make sense -- like bashing the same tour that enabled him to make millions each year -- well, he was too endearing for anyone to notice.

Lleyton, meanwhile, conformed to the stereotype of the tennis brat. Unable to dial back his combativeness once the match ended, he picked fights with the media, with the ATP, with former agents and managers, with other players at times. If you were a carbon-based organism, odds were good Lleyton would eventually serve you with a lawsuit. As one columnist -- OK, this columnist -- once wrote, Lleyton was all "will", no "grace."

By their mid-20s, Marat and Lleyton were both losing their grip, as two new contrasting players, Roger and then Rafa, were ruling the tennis roost. But their declines owed to different factors. In Marat's case, he spoke openly of "losing motivation." The grind of the circuit was wearing him down. Besides, there were other mountains to climb -- literally, he once missed a tournament because he impetuously decided to hike in Yosemite instead. There were friends and women and beaches and pursuits that demanded less commitment than hitting a tennis ball.

Marat was still excellent when he wanted to be, capable of beating mighty Roger on a good day, as he did memorably in Australia in 2005. (He then beat Lleyton one round later.) But mostly, he slogged through his 20s, telling the world how he'd rather be somewhere else. It might have been a cop-out, but he was disarming, so few could summon much outrage.

Lleyton fell for different reasons. The body that had enabled him to win hundreds of matches began betraying him and, without the backup power generator, his game suffered. It must have been frustrating, losing to players he'd owned a few years back. But he never complained. He got married as well, which clearly brought him joy, but seemed to blunt the me-against-the-world sensibilities that fueled his early success.

It looked especially grim when Lleyton underwent hip surgery, a procedure that often sounds the death knell for a player's career. But he went through rehab and resumed playing. He entered lower-tier events to rehab his ranking. He worked harder than ever, reckoning that since he wasn't going to outhit anyone, he'd better have superior fitness. Off the court, he'd lost his peevishness --marriage will do that to a man -- and, if he still wasn't the life of the party, he was now thoroughly professional.

By the fall of 2009, Marat was finished. It was his last year on tour and instead of mounting a final hurrah, he spoke more vociferously than ever about the absent motivation. He played his final match Wednesday. A pretty good metaphor for his career, he won the first set with brilliant tennis and was then vaguely recognizable for sets two, three and four. "It's OK," he said afterward, betraying nothing resembling nostalgia. "Could have been a better ending, but still OK. ... I have no regrets."

Lleyton? Around the same time Marat lost on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Lleyton walked onto to the Grandstand for his second-round match against Juan Ignacio Chela. And he soldiers on.

No, he's not going to disrupt the Roger-Rafa duopoly. But he'll tell you that there's something worthy about competing, being in the arena, matching wills and skills against another man. While his best days are behind him, he'll still win his share of matches on guts alone. On he goes, playing as long as his body will let him. And damn if there's not grace in that.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jon_wertheim/09/02/hewitt.safin/index.html?eref=T1