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WATCHING Marat Safin play tennis is like riding a rollercoaster
in the dark: it's much more fun because you don't know what
is going to happen next. Take the third set of Safin's fourth
round match against Pete Sampras. Safin was set to blitz the
tie at two sets to love and with all the momentum of the Trans-Siberian
express. But a couple of line calls went against him, he lost
touch and concentration, and what could have been a demolition
turned into a derby.
Take the numerous moments throughout the past fortnight when
Safin has stopped a ball with his head, foot or (at least
once) his backside. Take the moment in the otherwise unremarkable
match against Mikhail Youzhny, when Safin casually flicked
a ball into a line umpire, sparking a code violation and one
of the more fearsome on-and-off-court tirades Melbourne Park
has witnessed.
Safin is often angry, he is sometimes out of control, but
he is always entertaining. He has been alternately jeered
and cheered by the crowds at the Australian Open, but he has
copped a pounding from selected portions of the media. What
makes the slightly moralistic criticism unleashed at him hard
to bear is that Safin clearly spends a lot of his interview
time (and quite a lot of his tennis time) with his tongue
firmly tucked inside his cheek.
"I need to find the motivation, you know, against Sampras.
That's why I brought so many blondes here tonight," he
said after their epic.
Safin ups his fans' value for money by the added extras he
brings to his already deluxe edition game. He is fond of showing
off his soccer skills, even at the most critical moments of
a match. He sometimes produces a skip only matched by the
unmatchable Andrew Ilie to step into his backhand.
Of course there is a downside to Safin - the times when his
tongue and his cheek refuse to associate with each other.
The mist that hovers over him like a small red cloud is best
exemplified by his outrage at being warned during the match
against Youzhny. Safin's actions should not be excused - if,
as reported, he told American umpire Norm Chryst that he was
"f___ed in the head". His obvious display of contempt
for Chryst after the match ("How can I respect him if
he doesn't respect me?") also deserved condemnation.
But it is worth pointing out that Safin has a history with
Chryst and that - on this occasion - he looked particularly
hard done by. He deserved a fine, but not a character assassination
in the press.
A sombre under current to the 2002 Australian Open has been
talk of the growing unpopularity of tennis around the world.
No Swedish media outlet sent a correspondent for this tournament
despite the presence of four male Swedes, including eventual
quarter-final opponents Thomas Johansson and Jonas Bjorkman.
Johansson took umbrage to a poll in his homeland that did
not rate a single Davis Cup squad in Sweden's top 10 sports
teams of the century. Safin has said that Russian tennis is
slowly gaining ground, but still no Russian media saw fit
to track the likes of Safin, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Youzhny,
Elena Dementieva, Elena Likhovtseva or Anna Kournikova at
Melbourne Park. Even Australian tennis feels in need of a
pick-me-up, with Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis leading
a swag of disappointments this grand slam: the first since
Pat Rafter retired. On Friday, Joshua Eagle and Scott Draper
were named in our Davis Cup squad to face Argentina.
Take Sampras and Andre Agassi out of the picture in a couple
of year's time and it's easy to imagine American fans jumping
ship in similar fashion to the Swedes. And this is where Safin
comes in.
The ATP's New Balls Please generation is promising in a tennis
sense - Tommy Haas, Hewitt and Roger Federer may dominate
the men's game over the next decade or so. But tennis needs
more than quality competitors - it needs a shot in the arm.
Safin is not Yannick Noah, and neither is he John McEnroe.
But he is a little bit of both, and right now he is exactly
what men's tennis needs.
(Allsport)
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