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isn't first to face rough patch |
Tuesday,
August 28
Safin isn't first to face rough patch
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- A year ago, the very axis of men's tennis tilted
on this single freeze-frame:
Marat Safin, young, handsome and looking like he'd been there
before, held the U.S. Open championship trophy aloft, while
Pete Sampras, giving away three inches, 20 pounds, nine years
and more than a few strands of hair, stood behind, clutching
the runner's-up plate and looking longingly at Safin's sterling
cup. "He's the future of the game," Sampras said later. "He's
going to win many majors. It was weird. Usually at the ceremony,
I get to hold up the big trophy." You want weird? A year later
-- even with Safin mired in a disastrous, injury-riddled season
that still lacks a tournament victory -- Sampras could still
be right. Like Safin, Sampras won his first Grand Slam here
at the National Tennis Center at a tender age (19). It's long
forgotten now, but Sampras failed to win a single one of the
next 10 majors played before adding 12 more Grand Slams to his
record total. Is Safin, still a tender 21, feeling the pressure
of being the defending champion?
"I
don't really care," he said Monday night after dispatching
qualifier Sebastien De Chaunac 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in a rain-delayed,
first-round пїЅ OK, if I don't defend, what's going to happen?
Nothing. I have nothing to defend next year. It's perfect! пїЅ
English is merely the Russian's second language, but he has
a wonderful feel for expressing sarcasm. While no one is predicting
that Safin will repeat his break-through 2000 performance, there
is evidence that he has survived the dreaded season-after with
reasonable aplomb. Although the draw is impossibly loaded against
him -- Sampras, top-seeded Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter are
all on his side of the draw -- Safin could do some damage.
"I'm coming here again, I'm coming here to win it,"
Safin said. "For me, [it] would not be enough if I make
quarterfinals or semifinals. I still have a chance. I'm still
in draw, and I'm playing OK. I will fight and I will give everything.
I want to win, definitely."
Safin's Law
In terms of sheer talent, Safin is among a mere handful of players,
male or female, in the world. And yet, there have been times
this year when Safin has genuinely wondered what will go wrong
next. And sure enough, something always does. How frustrating
has it been for the player who won 73 of 100 matches and an
ATP-high seven titles last year to wind up with the No. 2 ranking?
Safin laughed. "There's so many that you cannot -- it will
not -- we don't have enough time."
Here's a quick stab:
Safin, who admittedly came into the year exhausted from his
impressive second half run, exited in the Round of 16 at the
Australian Open in straight sets courtesy of Dominik Hrbaty.
He was bounced in the first round at Rotterdam by Max Mirnyi
-- the first of seven first-round ousters in 17 events -- and
then injured his back in Dubai in February despite reaching
the final there.
It is ironic that Safin, the only player in modern history to
receive a fine ($2,000 at last year's Australian Open) for tanking
a match, would seemingly soldier on so heroically. He lost three
consecutive first-round matches in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte
Carlo, then lost in the second round in Rome and Hamburg. It
turned out that Safin had motivation, a financial motivation.
Safin was playing through the ATP's Masters Series events for
a $1.4 million bonus that is linked to participation in all
nine events. The price for missing just one of these tournaments
is $350,000. Missing two costs $700,000. Miss three and there
is no bonus at all.
"People can criticize me and say I just play for the money,"
Safin said in May, "but if they knew what that meant and
were in my situation, they would do the same thing."
From a different mold
Safin is not a Stanford-educated athlete who grew up playing
at a posh country club. He was born in Moscow and was shipped
to Valencia, Spain, at the age of 14 to master the game of tennis.
He turned professional in 1997, but his first three years on
the Tour netted him less than $1 million, which puts his insistence
on playing for that bonus in a different context.
Earlier this year, People Magazine named Safin one of the 25
most intriguing people in the world and his potential alone
makes him difficult to dismiss. He is still relatively quite
young; he has broken, by his count, more than 150 rackets to
date.
In the spring, a steadying influence arrived unexpectedly in
his life. Safin has been coached over the years by Spaniard
Rafael Mensua and has received guidance from Russians Andrei
Chesnokov and Alexander Volkov. Now six-time Grand Slam winner
Mats Wilander is attempting to temper the man with the volatile
temper.
Wilander, who was raising four children in the suburbs of Connecticut
and whittling his golf handicap into the single digits, saw
Safin play last year and told a number of disbelieving people
that he had the capacity to win the U.S. Open. They were introduced
by a mutual friend and have been carving out a relationship
that could carry Safin to the top of the game.
"The results are not coming straight away," Safin
acknowledged. "You have to wait. First we have to work
for three or four months, then it's coming. Slowly, [results]
start to come. You can't rush.
"If he stays with me for a long time, I think I can win
a few more Grand Slams."
Few, including perhaps Safin himself, believe that it will be
this one. His confidence, thanks to Wilander, is just starting
to come around.
Safin reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, losing to eventual
champion Goran Ivanisevic. After losing his first-round match
in Cincinnati earlier this month, Safin came back the next week
and belted his way to the semifinals, where he lost a stout
three-set match in a tiebreaker to Patrick Rafter.
"I'm trying to make some good results," Safin said.
"And it would be great if I could make -- I mean, it's
going to be a miracle if I can win here because the way I played
all year, it's a joke.
"But I'm there. I'm trying. I'm still fighting and I think
I can," he said. "Everything is possible, huh?"
Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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