SPORT EXPRESS INTERVIEW NOVEMBER 2005

[Annie]

If you plan on posting this somewhere else please be sure to make reference to TGFR for the translation. Thank you.

MARAT SAFIN
“I can’t stand the word “celebrity”

by Igor Rabiner “Sport Express” newspaper

A reporter’s life is full of sudden surprises. You come to a little Ukrainian restaurant next to Tsvetnoy Boulevard to have lunch without a tape recorder and a notebook, you look at the table next to you and suddenly see Marat Safin. You get slightly surprised: this place is nice but it’s nothing ultra fashionable. As any regular person I would think people of such calibre should go to “special” places but Safin is here, quietly having a bite to eat in a very regular restaurant (for the most curious readers I state that Marat was alone and not drinking alcohol). The tennis player, who has grown a lot of hair and a little beard recently, is polite with waiters and talks to them in a half-whispering manner not wanting to be noticed.

Your journalistic nature tells you: you cannot let this chance slip! It doesn’t matter that Safin is known for his unfriendly attitude towards journalists and you mainly write about football watching tennis simply as a spectator. But then again Safin likes football, too: he once said in an interview that he dreams about “Spartak’s” victory in the Champions League and in June, 2005 he rushed from his tournament in Mönchengladbach for just one night to watch a Russia-Germany match and after that he visited the changing room of our team. Behavioural norms were not violated by a Sport Express journalist: I waited until Safin finished his meal, came up and introduced myself and got an agreement to do an interview right away. Three days later instead of pre-agreed 30 minutes we spoke to an hour and a half. And the winner of US Open 2000, Australian Open 2005 and Davis Cup 2002 turned out to be a rather natural and open young man.

It’s cold and my knee hurts

-Aren’t you scared to gain weight when you have lunch in a Ukrainian restaurant? The food there is very calorie-rich and you haven’t been playing for a few months due to an injury?

-Luckily, my body allows me not to be afraid of that. I have only gained two kilos since I stopped playing, now I weigh 95 kilos instead of 93.

- Your status doesn’t force you to visit more posh places as they say nowadays?

-Oh, please! I go to this Ukrainian restaurant 3-4 times a week and a friend of mine owns it. Every restaurant of this chain has a huge cube for donations, which are used to buy hospital equipment. Once he was skiing in Switzerland and broke his arm really badly. He turned to a doctor named Sergey Arkhipov, who literally put his hand together piece by piece. To thank the doctor my friend came up with this idea. Not so long ago with this money a hospital bought equipment worth 130 thousand euros.
As for the status, I cannot stand the word “celebrity” and anything that it might imply. It’s total nonsense. When someone calls a person a celebrity, it’s like they are trying to turn him into a robot. And I am a human being.

-You started this season with a brilliant victory at Australian Open, then you missed quite a few tournaments and now you have withdrawn from the Masters Cup in Shanghai. When you do plan to return to court?

- If everything turns out how the doctors promised I will start running slowly in two weeks, then in December I will start giving some additional pressure on my body, no weightlifting or anything serious like that, slowly. My goal is to pick up good form for the Australian Open where I have a lot of ranking points to defend. I don’t know whether I will have enough time. I am still not allowed to do anything: run, do sharp movements. Even going up the stairs I have to be extremely careful. It’s cold today and my knee hurts. This is a permanent injury and I will never be able to completely get rid of it.

- What’s it called?

- (Annie’s comment: people, have mercy!!! I am not a doctor but will try to translate LOL) Torn fibers of a kneecap. All pressure passes through these fibers. I played injured for 6 months. I played Roland Garros after painkilling injections – 1400/1600 milligrams. It helped at the time but it was impossible not to limp after a match.

- Is that how you beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in Paris?

- Yes. This is the same way I won matches in Wimbledon. There my leg could only take two matches.

- Do you regret playing injured for so long?

- I had something very similar five years ago. Every time I changed the surface my knee was hurting and then in a couple of weeks it used to pass. I thought the pain would go away. It started to really hurt during Indian Wells. I was hoping it would be better when we moved to clay. It wasn’t. But I couldn’t get proper cure – Roland Garros was ahead, “super nine” tournaments in Hamburg and Rome, Wimbledon…You have to play while you can, you cannot escape from it. However, after London I just couldn’t anymore.

[Annie]

continued

Rushed to court before it was time

- So you went to Italy to get treatment?

- Yes. I had calculated that a month – a month and a half I could afford missing tournaments. However I obviously rushed out before it was time.

- Why obviously?

- Two reasons. First of all, I had to play, to defend points. US Open was coming up and I had to gain form. In tennis one thing clings to another, it’s like a circle, which you cannot get out from. And even though I had been warned that I had to stay and get treatment for another 2-3 weeks, I took a decision and left. I got on court and “finished myself off”. It would be best now to make the treatment a little longer but Australian Open starts in January and I am the defending champion. I will already be out of top 10 at the beginning of next year and if in addition to that I will play badly during this tournament, then I will not be seeded at large tournaments. I cannot allow that to happen even though right now I totally realise that my form in Melbourne will not be super. I will only start playing then.

- Let’s get back to your rushing out, what was the second reason?

- There is a huge difference between getting treatment in Moscow and in an unknown city. I knew noone in Bologna and stayed at the hotel. I wanted to howl I was so sick at heart. I hardly speak Italian and then there was this moment when I felt an urge to play. All in all, I couldn’t take it anymore there. I told the doctors I could not stand it any longer and went to Moscow, to my friends and family. And then I returned to court too soon.

- Do you still go to Italy?

- No, I go to a health centre near Kurskaya tube station. They have great specialists there, once in 2 weeks they fixed my hand, which made me miss 8 months of tennis. I trust them completely. A diagnosis was the same from everyone – Italians, Americans and our doctors. I had people coming up to me and say: there is this fantastic doctor, he knows how to cure you. How the hell does this so called doctor know anything if we haven’t even met?

- How how…from the money that you have.

- Life has been teaching me to recognise people like that. I make mistakes sometimes but on the whole I am becoming an expert.

- Have you thought of having surgery especially considering that it’s a permanent injury?

- I would have had to miss a whole year. I will be 27 in 2007. Plus I would have to go through hell: crutches, therapy…I think I won’t be able to return to tennis after this.


They turn us into invalids

-I remember your criticism addressed to ATP management with regards to tournament schedule, which increases levels of injuries.

- Yes, I criticised them. We play non-stop for 11 months a year. We have one month to rest and get ready for the next season. How can we talk about health, rest and personal life? And the system is made in such a way that you have to play tournaments all year round. You cannot take a two-week break if you are tired. And tennis balls change every time. Can you imagine football players having to play with balls of different weight all the time? Yes, I am in this business and I don’t want it to die. But in addition to that I want to be healthy and I don’t want my colleagues to receive numerous injuries in one year.

- Will I exaggerate if I say that this super tight ATP schedule turns you all into invalids?

- No, you won’t, it does. Not even a well-trained person can handle this pressure. That’s why by 30 most players retire.

- Then how do you explain the Agassi phenomenon?

- It’s a mystery to all. Well done, I take my hat off. I don’t know his secrets though, we don’t communicate much, quite a big age gap.

- How do you treat the opinion that your injuries are a result of your tennis routine violations?

- To those people, who think that way I would like to remind that tennis is my life and my business. All that I have, I owe it to tennis. And I treat my business just the same way as let’s say a chairman of the bank treats his. Will he go to work with a headache and swollen face suffering from a hangover? Neither will I, I cannot disorderly treat something, which is a basis of my lifestyle. And then I play for Russia and not for some Thai Pei, where noone even watches tennis. Here they notice these things right away.
I am already 25 and not 18 when I could have gone out to play after a party and treated tennis differently. Knowing what kind of money I earn people tend to think that I party every night and don’t give a damn about tennis. This point of view is not only stupid but it is also an insult to me. It is very unpleasant to communicate with people who think like that. It means that this person is “spitting me in the face” thinking that I am just lucky because I have the talent. How many of these talents weren’t able to remain in professional tennis! Take Marcelo Rios for example. When he worked – he was first, then he stopped taking business seriously and had to leave. And if I treated tennis in the same manner I would not be around. It was ten years ago that you could reach a final of a serious tournament with just your serve. Now everyone has impeccable preparation, everyone has a whole team behind him. You get into the changing room and look at these guys shirtless and get an impression that you have come to a bodybuilding contest, that’s how much time people spend in gyms with their fitness coaches. You won’t get far with just talent nowadays!

- What’s more important for you: to be first in tennis or to live a balanced life?

- To be first in tennis and live a balanced life.

- Just like in that proverb: it’s better to be healthy and rich than to be ill and poor.

- That’s right. I was number 1 for 12 weeks and in the times of Sampras, Kafelnikov, Rafter and even Becker and Corda and Federer and Ferrero have appeared already. I only left that spot when I had torn a ligament. It turned out that 1 is a very tough number. You get this feeling of a ceiling, like you hit something and cannot go higher, and when you’re a bit lower you have something to aim at.

[Annie]

continued

I cannot lie around on the sofa watching TV

- When you spend months undergoing therapy do you feel discomfort or on the contrary enjoy life?

- I treat injuries differently compared to younger days. Tennis, too. I had a few moments of crisis on those days when I hated it and wanted to quit. Now I understand that I owe everything to tennis. And would be stupid to claim that I would have reached the same level without it. I play not only because it pays good money but because I enjoy it. The more I like it the better I play and therefore the higher the level of my life. Satisfaction, results and money all go as a whole. That is why the times on uncertainty, when the moment of my return to court keeps being postponed, I cannot call them good times. Certainty is always better, either a yes or a no.

- What if no?

- This is professional sport. It came and went. In any case I would say “thank you”.

- Are you meaning to say that you are mentally ready to accept the fact that injuries will one day force you to terminate your career?

- I suppose so.

- If it happens, what will you do?

- This is the most difficult part – what to do after a career. I ask advice from my closest friends. When I was passing through bad times they were always with me, one of them even went to tournaments to China with me…They are normal people, no snobs and I know that they won’t leave me. I hope we manage to figure something out together.

- Won’t you be able to live off what you have already earned?

- The worst thing for a man is a ceiling. When there is nothing to do and no future a man starts to degrade. And I love life. I constantly need to do something, I can’t just lie around on the sofa watching TV. Days fly, hours, minutes, life is great and it’s really stupid to waste time stupidly in order not to be ashamed for aimlessly wasted years.

- Where will you settle down?

- I have lived everywhere, I know three languages - English, Spanish and a little bit of Italian. I have my own apartment in Moscow, family, friends. I have a place in Monte Carlo. A lot of things still tie me to Spain, where I always train because it is much more comfortable there than in Russia. Plus to that tennis dictates a lifestyle, which you can’t lead staying in one place. I have lived like that since I was 15, I cannot even imagine being in the same city for over three months. I have to move in space, otherwise it feels like I am missing something. That is why I shall decide on the settlement place after I finish with my career.

- Are you in touch with Kafelnikov?

- Yes.

- Has he managed to interest you in golf and poker?

- No. I am not a gambler at all that is why I don’t fancy poker or any other card games. I also have no patience so golf is out of the question, too.


- Do you think it was easy for Kafelnikov to retire?

- We have different characters. Zhenya said he was quitting and did it right away. I wouldn’t be able to do that. I have no idea how he had the strength to make such a decision in one day. I am temporarily not playing and still it’s really hard…

My grandpa dug foundation pits for skyscrapers

- How do you spend your time now that you can’t train?

- I arrive at the clinic at 11 nowadays, do treatment. Then I go to the gym and work on my upper body – that’s the only thing I am allowed to do. Then I go swimming and go back to the clinic for the rest of my treatment. Then I work on my apartment. I really enjoy it and now I also help my parents to do up their apartment.

- Do you hang around a lot with them?

- Yeah, I just had lunch with them today. We were never as close as we are right now. They understand me perfectly and support me a great deal. I even have fun with them.


- I heard you went to your motherland the other day?

- Yes. First my Dad and I went to Kazan, we were invited by the President Shaymiev and then we went to this little village in the middle of nowhere in Tatarstan, where my grandpa once lived. We were looking for his house and suddenly this 80-year old granny shouts out: “Are you Marat Safin?” I was shocked that anyone knows me in a place I have never been to before, 500 kilometres away from Moscow you can’t drive to, can barely walk to and where they don’t even have signs with street names. And when they know who you are, you start to understand how popular tennis is in Russia.

- What made it so popular?

- It’s not a what it’s a who. Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin. If the first Russian President never played tennis it would have been just a casual sport. But nowadays people know so much about it that you start to wonder how.

- Is your Grandpa still alive?

- Yeah, he is over 80 now. He goes to every Kremlin Cup, every security guard knows him and lets him in without a pass. A long time ago, in the 1930s without a passport he decided to go to Moscow hardly speaking Russian at all. Noone used to leave places like that village where he is from, but he did it for his family. He said he was going to Moscow and try to get lucky. He dug foundation pits for skyscrapers by hands and built the first tube stations. He lived through the whole war and was wounded twice. He got a place to live in Moscow, got married, had three sons, one of them is my Dad. It turns out Safins have it in the blood to strive for perfection.

- Do you speak Tartar language?

- I understand a few words but I never learned how to speak. But I think I shouldn’t be blamed for that. My Grandpa still doesn’t speak Russian very well but he said everything with his actions. I don’t think I would have become what I am right now if it wasn’t for him.

[Annie]

My parents set up a transfer from football to tennis

- Is it true that someone didn’t accept you in a football section due to the fact that you were short?

- I heard this fable. It’s total nonsense. I desperately wanted to play football and was accepted to Spartak school. I went there for about a month and a half and it turned out that there was noone who could take me there. Now I understand that this was set up on purpose and I am grateful. I definitely couldn’t have reached my present level if I continued with football.

- Nonetheless you remain a Spartak supporter?

- I grew up there! My Mum worked in their tennis club. I worshipped Spartak in football, hockey and other sports. Even when I lived in Spain I managed to watch some Champions League games with Spartak. I was a really passionate supporter. Now, however, I am signed with Dinamo.

- So whom do you support in football now?

- Spartak is still closer to my heart. (smiles) I am glad the team is being re-born.

- Was it difficult for your Mum to give you into the hands of complete strangers and let you go to Spain at the age of 14?

- I think she understood that there was no other way. In the 1990s our tennis was totally hopeless. No racquets, no balls, no tournaments. It was impossible to break through staying in Russia. In men’s tennis there is still no wise system of preparing the kids up to now. The results speak for themselves: what is going to happen to the guys who are coming after us is a mystery. If a person wants to achieve something by the age of 18 he has to at least be in top 200. If you’re in top 700 that in my opinion means that you’re not playing seriously but fooling around.

Our female tennis boom is because of Kournikova

- Why is our female tennis progressing at such high speed?

- It’s easier to break through there. And in addition, we are living through a real female tennis boom unlike the men’s. You know whom we should thank that for? Even though everyone is trying to deny it – thanks to Anna Kournikova. Anna showed what levels of popularity one can achieve in tennis. Parents took their daughters to tennis courts under her influence.

- What do you think about the path she’s chosen?

- I have known Anna since we were six, I like her a lot. We have our separate lives. Who forced her to evolve life around tennis? The fact that a person decided to make such drastic changes in life talks of nothing but her strength. To quit everything you’ve lived for, for 15 years and try to do something new is very hard. I wouldn’t have managed to do it even if I had opportunities like hers.

- What do you think about the whole fuss over Maria Sharapova?

- Nothing for now. She stormed in at the beginning and we shall see what will happen next. Our paths don’t cross: different age, different interests. We know each other, not more than that.

- Does Dinara consult you on professional matters a lot?

- No. At the age of 19 a person has to make mistakes, hurt oneself otherwise you cannot become strong. You’ve been through this, I’ve been through this and she will, too. Dinara has grown up, we started to communicate more and during for example Grand Slams we go have dinner when we get a chance. But I don’t barge in with my advice.

- Do you want your sister to live up to the surname or you don’t care what ranking she’s got?

- Doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that she remains a normal human being. And I don’t care whether she is 10th, 300th or quits tennis as such. It is more important that everything she does makes her happy and does her good.

- Whom do you support from the Russian girls?

- All girls are great. Sometimes you see how fame changes people but it didn’t spoil our girls.

[Annie]

Roddick and I don’t talk to each other

- Is there anyone from the top players you haven’t managed to build a relationship with?

- Roddick and I don’t talk to each other. We fell out during the Olympic Games in Athens.

- What hapenned?

- I am not going to tell, it’s stupid. But the man has changed and not for the best. I’ve known him, Federer and Hewitt practically since childhood, we’re of the same age, we’ve been playing each other forever. I have an excellent relationship with the other two. Federer became more disciplined, serious, a real Swiss. He is a very good person. Once I had to present someone I knew with a racquet and I didn’t have one on me. I asked Roger for one and he gave it to me without hesitation. I have wonderful memories about Sampras – he treated me really well and I respected him deeply. Just as I respect Agassi.

- You have admired Federer’s game on numerous occasions. Some people actually consider him the best player of all times. Do you agree?

- I’d say yes. He has everything a perfect player should have. You can find flaws in Agassi and Sampras but Federer has none.

- Nevertheless you managed to beat him in the Australian Open semifinal?

- It happens (laughs).

- What flaws do you have in your game?

- Even though I hit balls in motion much better now I am still far from perfect. You see, I trained in Spain where they don’t really pay it too much attention. What else…Due to the height I am limited in movement on court. I could play better at the backline…Oh by the way, this is an answer to those who think talent and height are a key to any problem. There are other things, which I am not going to talk about. I would call them “well covered holes”. I cannot get rid of them, but I can cover them up.

- Is your main dream to win Roland Garros?

- Yes. In Paris the crowd treats me amazingly ever since 1998, when I really showed myself and had beaten Kuerten and Agassi. Even when we were winning over French in the Davis Cup final, the French applauded me can you believe it?

- Did your Mum tell you how she played Roland Garros?

- I am not interested. As if I have nothing better to talk to my mother about!

- What do you think of our supporters?

- They are very demanding and that is why it is rather difficult for me to play in Moscow. But nonetheless Russian supporters like me more than the Brits like Henman, who has been hated in London because he cannot win Wimbledon. But everyone forgets that there was noone in England like him for a 100 years! So in comparison to him I have nothing to complain about. I feel that in Russia I am no longer considered as a spoilt by fate brat that doesn’t care about anything. Now I walk along the street, go into shops and I hear “Get well Marat!.” That’s nice. And when little kids pull their mums’ dresses and whisper “Mummy, do you know who this is?” – it really gets to me. That is why when they ask me to visit Tver or Kazan in order to attract kids to tennis I go without thinking twice.

- Do you think of having your own children?

- I would love to become a father, even in the next year or two. But up to now I haven’t met anyone I would have kids with…

[Annie]

I don’t like Wimbledon. And US OPEN only for New York.

- Do you still have a tricky relationship with Wimbledon?

- I do not like this tournament. One of the reasons - a totally disastrous sportsmen treatment. Here’s an example. 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 5 pounds, coffee – another 5. The rest of the food is horrible – fish and chips everywhere and hamburgers. I can pay myself of course. What’s really unappealing is disrespect. How can you give such a treatment to people, who waste tons of health and strength earning tons of money for the organisers? Wimbledon’s profit alone is around 60 milliom pounds!

- Maybe you don’t like Wimbledon due to the surface as well?

- You can get used to grass. In 2001 I was in the quarterfinals, I played really well this year and would have got further than two rounds if it wasn’t for the knee. In Halle I almost beat Federer in the final on grass. It is another thing that it is very hard for me to switch from clay to grass, I don’t have time to get used to it. But the surface has nothing to do with it. Only for supporters Wimbledon is traditions and promotion but Wimbledon for players is horrible treatment.

- Nevertheless, are you hoping to win it one day?

- That would be hard to do.

- At what other Grand Slams is organisation suffering?

- US Open. Constant transport problems to get to the stadium and back. Food is unbearable as well: you get dried pizza, which has been lying around for about 5 hours, coffee is black water. And after September 11 the police has become animalistic: they are everywhere, questioning you at the entrance to the stadium, if you say something wrong you will be taken to police headquarters. You’re forced to take shoes and even shorts off at the airport, they’re really rude to you. This makes me go mad. Only New York itself saves the situation – it’s a fantastic city. I usually live nowhere near the majority of players. Old districts have really wonderful places, which the others don’t know about yet.

- Are you friends with any of your colleagues?

- Tennis has become such an individual sport that I think noone is really friends with anyone. I hang out with many, first of all with Kolya Davydenko, Igor Andreev and Misha Youzhny. But we all have our own lives.

- What place do the Olympic Games occupy on your scale of sports valuables?

- It’s obviously very prestigious to win them but I value Grand Slams much higher. But this is not the reason I played badly both my Olympics. I came to Sydney after I had won US Open and Tashkent tournament, I had no strength. Athens had horrible conditions. All tennis players were devastated. We played with balls, which you can easily buy in the cheapest supermarket. Courts were coloured in such a way that we could hardly see the ball. The wind was awful and we were given fast food to eat…It was a nightmare.

- When Kafelnikov had won the Sydney Olympics he said:”Only in the Olympic village I had realised I played for the country, not for myself”.

- And Zhenya didn’t live in the village, he just used to come there! (laughs). I lived there both times. Sydney was wonderful. The house was comfortable, my neighbours was a pentathlon champion Dima Svatkovkiy, Sasha Moskalenko, female tennis players, table tennis guys. Nemov came to visit, Sveta Khorkina (Russian gymnasts). I remember I met Karelin (heavy weight wrestling champion) and my hand drowned in his. All was beautiful, family - like. And the feelings were those that Kafelnikov talked about. When I put on a track suit with “Russia” written on it everyone looked at me with respect. I lost on the very first day but stayed there until the end of the Olympics and never went outside the village it was so great there! Tons of fun! It was all different in Athens. There was barb wire all around the village. I had the Israeli team as neighbours and people with machine guns used to guard them, I felt uncomfortable. No grass underneath your feet, they had built bungalows on bare soil. I think Olympic sportsmen deserve better than that.

[Annie]

TENNIS IS A WHOLE PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE

- Your popularity helps you meet famous people. Which meetings were most memorable?

- I can’t name them all. I had a chance to meet presidents – Vladimir Putin, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, and directors, musicians…I know Fedya Bondarchuk, went to the opening night of his new film “The 9th company”. The guys from “Uma2rman” are great (Russian music group). I respect people who have achieved something in this life and whom the public admires.

- I heard you’re friends with sportsmen, too.

- I have known Ilya Kovalchuk (a hockey player) for a long time. A short while ago football players Dmitry Bulikin joined our group and a wrestler Hasan Baroev. We saw Ilya off to Atlanta a few days ago and I saw the other two on the weekend. And we don’t talk about sport when we meet.

- Do you dress in designer clothes?

- I have gotten over that already. When I was 17 I had one pair of trousers and one pair of shoes for every occasion. I remember coming to Davis Cup for the first time in my life – no suit, no white shirt. I look at the photos and feel ashamed. Then when I started earning money I obviously wanted to look good. And now when I can buy anything I want, my passion for chic clothes has vanished.

- A great actor Oleg Tabakov once told me: ”I have been teaching for 30 years and I always recommend my students to watch tennis because you understand a lot…about yourself”. Can you relate to that?

- Of course. In football for example, which is a team sport, one can hide himself, but on court a person is fully exposable. You can right away say whether he is courageous, scared, strong, cheeky, soft, emotional…Or a “thief” – on court of course. I just need one look at a person on court and I can tell you what’s he like. Tennis is a personality quiestionnaire.

- Who’s a “thief”?

- Someone who always argues with an umpire, always trying to prove to the umpire that the ball was good when it was out and the opposite.

- When Kiefer played Igor Andreev in the Kremlin Cup final, that’s exactly the way the German was reacting.

- Yeah, that is a vivid example. Obviously, in everyday life he is a normal guy but on court some secret features of a character start appearing. You can’t hide anything there.

- Including your emotions. Are you easily wound up outside the court?

- It’s elementary. I cannot stand boorishness. But I try to stay calm. It’s a result of long training sessions…

- How many racquets a year do you manage to break?

- Now around 50. Before it was 60. I am slowly growing up (laughs).

- Are there people who take care of your image and explain what you can and cannot do?

- No. I live for myself and not for someone else. I live in a way to make it fun and interesting. I don’t care what’s being said behind my back, if I think I can afford to do something I do it. I don’t need other people’s judgements and lectures on what’s good and what’s not. I decide it for myself.

- I thank you for sitting through this interview so heroically. Is there anything you would like to say that I haven’t asked you about?

- You already know more about me than my mother does!