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05.22.2002
Here is the translation of the article taken from the French
sport Newspaper "L'equipe".
translated by Matt.
Hi there! Here's the translation of L'�quipe from yesterday.
Sorry my very poor English!!
Matt.
At twenty years old, the talentuous Marat search his stability,
between his champion's statue and his party's spirit.
The Marat's Safin destiny definitely changes the 10th of September
2000, day of his victory against Pete Sampras at the final of
the Us Open. Until there, he's only the most hope of the tennis's
world. The night after the final, he becomes a superstar of
the game. "Two hours after the final, I took him apart
and said to him "Today, you still don't know, but your
life has changed" He didn't want to hear about that and
said "No, I will never change!" But I knew that he'd
be in a vague which will be more stronger than him. The problem
is that Marat doesn't want to be a superstar He always says
me "Gerald, I don't want to be Agassi or Kournikova."
But he doesn't have the choice. Today he lives better the situation
because he has accepted it."
Safin is not the first to have staged, to pass from an anonymous
life to the glory. One year after his victory, in 1990, Pete
Sampras was relieved to abandon his title: too much pressions
and solicitations. But the American hd an advantage which permit
him to do the career that we know: he doesn't have interest's
centers over tennis. Not Safin. As a good Russian influenced
by the Spanish culture, he likes parties, sometimes until excess.
"I don't know if it's because of his incredible physical,
but in his personality, all is excessive, said Arnaud Casagarnde,
the coach of Escude and a good friend of Marat. Whatever is
his activity, I've the impression that he can't things in a
half. When he does party, he completely does it. When he practices,
he can works really too hardly. At the table, he can eats very
very much. He's never between the two extremes."
The dilemma would be less difficult if Marat would not have
conscious of his enormous talent. But in the Atp's world, all
is believed. But from Bob Brett to Marc Rosset, everybody agrees:
if the guy keeps his feet at earth, he's going to dominate exclusively
the tour. A failure would be an heresy , an insult for his talent.
Between his pendulum of his desires, the Russian search the
Stability's point. "There's a sort of a conflict in himself,
explains Tsobanian. On the one hand, he knows that to become
the Number one, he must be concentrated on his job and more
vigilant on his hygiene's life, and on the other hand, he wants
to profit of the life, like all guys who are twenty years old
like too. This conflict is difficult. 2001 was an adaptation's
year. People found him a little bit arrogant, inaccessible,
hard, less smilingly. It's more easy for him this year. He's
now more focused on the Events. Between that he can becomes
again the young guy that he'd like to be."
The Safin's picture with his blondes at the last Australian
Open makes the round of the world. Nothing is better to fabricate
a clich�. The truth is surely more finely stunded. " For
me, Marat is the James Dean of the tennis. He loves life and
can't refrain for profiting about it, even if it means that
he burns his wings. He's got a beautiful face, he likes parties
and women. But in the same time, he's not a gambler. The thing
that he prefers is to be at the table with his friends, to be
with with people that he appreciates. He's really nice and generous.
There's fifteen days old when I went to Geneva to practice with
Nico (Escud�), it's him who came to the airport. The evening,
we went at the restaurant. Of course, he paid for everybody"
Best friend of Marat on the tour, coach-assistant until a new
order, Marc Rosset confirmed these words. He even goes more
far than Casagrande: Everybody believes that Marat likes to
show off with models in the nightclubs. But the thing he hates
the most, except the rules, is to go to the nightclubs and to
be call out by everybody of "good advice's". Like
me, he's in fact very shy. Since he's in Geneva, he didn't go
out a lot. He prefers stay at his apartment, quietly. When I
call him, there's nine chances about ten that he's reading on
his sofa. In fact, the thing that he loves is to be with three
or four friends, in a room, to remake the world. He'd immediately
sign to be the number one and to be in the same time unknown."
But it's not easy to be unnoticed with an athletic physical
overhung by a beautiful face, and when Marat likes to laugh,
to charm his auditory. On the ATP tour, encircled by processionals
with boring speeches, Safin stands out clearly by his sense
of humor and derision. To a journalist who asked him in Estoril
how was his stay in Moscow, he answers with a little smile "The
weather was good. But it's normal: in Moscow, it's me who deals
with the weather." The famous "B�te noire" of
Marat, Fabrice Santoro, is not the last to profit of his retorts:"
After my my fourth or fifth victory against him, whenever he
saw me, he took his hands on his head and said "No, please,
not him!". He teases me too: "So, Santoro, always
there with your smile?" or " Tell me, it's a long
time ago, that you're in the tour. Don't you believe it would
be the good the time to stop now?". He's a nice guy, and
I find that our matches gets closer us.
Even in competition, Safin has some troubles to let the clown
who is in him: "I took my best crazy laugh with him, remembers
Nicolas Escud�. We played a double in Rotterdam. I played with
Rosset, and Marat with Kiefer. On a lob completely missed, Marc
has search the difficulty in trying to do backhand smash, who
finished at the deep of the net. I looked Marat, and we exploded
of laugh. The problem was that it took 10 minutes to stop to
laugh. It was impossible to play, so we asked "Cazou"(Arnaud
Casagrande) to leave the court. Marat couldn't hit the ball."
The anecdote dates from one year and a half. Now, Safin seems
to let his unconcern which was so endearing. "I met him
the first time at the beginning of 1999 before he explodes at
the high level, explains Tsobanian. It was one year before to
work with him. The thing that I liked was his youth, his lightness.
We noticed him, because he liked to have fun and to do the clown.
That's which miss to him today. I think that he doesn't carelessness.
The fact that there's a lots of money in the game, and that
he feels to be observed for every facts and gestures blocks
him. In private, he has kept this enjoyed personality. In public,
he hides it. I think that he's got a lots of qualities that
he hesitates to develop, like his charmer side, his sense of
the communication. He could be more open. He has so much talent
on his face, his smile and his eyes".
Tsobanian shares his time between Safin and Goran Ivanisevic.
We can believe that he likes to care about difficult cases:
" They have a few commun points. If there was someone who
would come from an another planet, who would not know Marat
but who would be Goran Ivanisevic, I would tell him :"You
see, there's a man who looks like you!" It depends of his
mood. One day , his spirit is perfectly aligned on the moon,
Mars and Jupiter. Next day, something happens, it changes his
universe and doesn't know in which direction goes. He's lost."
For his agent, the comparison with the hero of the last Wimbledon
doesn't stop there. There's three years old, at the US Open,
Ivanisevic spoke about the three or four Goran who were in himself,
which took the power one after other. For Tsobanian, Marat is
made by the same wood: "Goran noticed that there were three
or four persons who were in himself. Marat still knows that
he has two sides: the champion and the guy who likes to do party
with his friends. But he will soon see that there' are another
sides. And he will discovers them with the time..."
Now, we have to wait to know which of them will take the advantage.
The future career of a dominator of the Tour costs that price.
www.lequipe.com
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