NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 25, 2005

Marat Safin

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

MARAT SAFIN: It's much tougher when you're not feeling well. I was little bit out of confidence. Everything is becoming more difficult. It's difficult to go without the confidence especially first round, especially against Labadze. He's tough player. He's lefty. So it was -- he almost got me.

MARAT SAFIN: No, physically I been working really hard. I had 10 days of fitness training. I'm very fit. I found myself a little bit heavy because I was doing a lot of exercises one week ago, like all one week.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, yeah. I working really hard. Was little bit heavy, but it was normal. Also just a little bit out of confidence.

MARAT SAFIN: It's two months passed. I didn't play for two weeks, I had a bad loss in Dubai, then Davis Cup in Moscow that I won. But then also last week I played a terrible match against Dent. But I have to admit that really, during all my career, I never done well in Indian Wells or here. So it's a little bit normal. Don't really put myself under a lot of pressure. There are some tournaments that you don't do well no matter how tough you train, no matter how much you prepare. It's not my month. So this is why I'm just trying to break through.

MARAT SAFIN: Of course, there is always downhill. I'm not like Roger; he's way too high, you know. He has all the skills. Even when he is not playing well, he has enough feeling, enough talent to be able to, you know, like not to show it. Me, when I'm not playing well, I just suffer little bit more and my game suffers because my game is basically -- most of the time it's a risk, I'm taking a risk. When you're not in shape, you miss a lot.

MARAT SAFIN: It's improved in a way. Put less pressure on myself. But also you want to do well, so well after the Australian Open because you want to put yourself and try to make the year, you know -- try to be stable. So it's kind of difficult, you know. Like, because you want to do extra well. So you don't have a pressure, but at the same time you have a pressure because you want to just maintain the same level of tennis that you played in Australian Open. But for some reason, better for me to forget about what I did in Australian Open and try and concentrate and try to play match by match and take each tournament at a time, and not to really think about the way I'm playing, how many matches I won, how many matches I lost. Just try to, no matter how bad I'm playing, just try to win, give your best and whatever comes, comes.

MARAT SAFIN: Of course I do. Of course. Because I am, in a way, I'm perfectionist. It's really difficult for me, you know, to admit or to accept that I'm not playing really well.

MARAT SAFIN: I was little bit upset. I was little bit upset with myself. I was not happy with the way I was hitting the ball because I had my chances, I couldn't take them, so I was getting little bit frustrated because I wanted to win too badly. Because really, it was very important match for me to win, because always the first match, especially in the big tournaments, is always tough. And when you have the opportunities, not like five sets where you can go away from the match and come back, here you have to take your chances and that's it. Because it can be really fast. I had my chances. I missed them. He was there, you know. In the tiebreak he had a chance.

MARAT SAFIN: Both. I think more Dent because to me it's like I was very close to play well, you know. Just if -- he's uncomfortable tennis player. Of course he's serving well. He's playing without any rhythm. I had my 4-All and Love-40. I felt that for some reason, just turned the other way around and I couldn't find myself.

MARAT SAFIN: That's a really bad one. This would be really bad one.

MARAT SAFIN: I'll be full of frustration, I guess. I would be really pissed at myself, you know, because I been working really hard, and it would be a waste of opportunity and it would be a waste of month, basically.

MARAT SAFIN: A little bit. Well, thanks a lot to compare me to him, but it's still little bit what we are talking about, two different kind of players. In a way we're different, we have different priorities, and it's little bit difficult, you know, to compare us together, the way we are, because we have completely different mentality, we have completely different the way of thinking. I admire him, what he is doing and how he is doing.

MARAT SAFIN: Of course, because I played a great match.

MARAT SAFIN: You want to go back and you want to try to remember the things, the way I was playing, and try to find your game and try to go back and see what I was doing right, what I'm not doing right now. For some reason I am doing everything exactly the same, but it doesn't go exactly the same way.

MARAT SAFIN: Could be. Could be. But also it's, like I said, it's a first round. First rounds are always tough because new courts, new balls, he's much -- it's humid here so the balls are not playing so fast like in Indian Wells. In Indian Wells, was playing way too much. It's difficult. You have to adapt yourself. You're playing against a lefty. I played against him once only in my life. It's kind of also like a derby, he's Georgian, I'm Russian - Soviet Union, all these things make you think, put you under pressure.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah. I know him since we were 10. So it's kind of we grew up together. He beat me once in European Championship under 16.

MARAT SAFIN: In America?

MARAT SAFIN: For some reason, I didn't really do well after that win. Well, I played once in semifinal in 2001. But since then, it's been many years that I didn't do anything special up here.

MARAT SAFIN: There's some tournaments, like I said, there's some tournaments you can't -- no matter how you prepare, just doesn't work for some reason, doesn't go your way. So you have to accept it. But of course you want to break it, and you try. You try to do something different, you try to work hard, you try to play, practice harder, stronger, then less. Then you do something else, just not to think about it. So I've been doing for past seven years, I tried everything.

MARAT SAFIN: Different hotels. I tried to practice more, less. Tried not to practice, tried to stay in the courts, you know, as much as you can, tried to focus on the tennis. So it's like no matter what I tried, it doesn't work.

MARAT SAFIN: Everybody's here, you know. Everybody - fitness trainer, masseur, coach, girlfriend, mother, sister, everybody, you know. Try to be a perfect family man and try to be as much into tennis as I can be.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, busy table, everybody on my shoulders. No, because you need the support. I need the support to, you know -- people to carry you and to, you know, to like be with you. Why not?

MARAT SAFIN: Try to be a little bit more positive on the court, try to, yeah, try to be more positive. Not to eat yourself from inside. No matter how bad you're playing, keep on going, keep on going, keep on going, if it doesn't go your way, not to get frustrated. But I am, I am going crazy. I cannot change myself because I hate to lose. It drives me mad. He's trying to make me be calm and try to be reasonable, try to be rational on the court.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, just two cords in one racquet just last week. It's a kind of frustration that in a way is necessary, but it has to wait until locker room, and I went little bit nuts on the court also because I couldn't deal with the way I was playing. Was a little bit too frustrating for me.

MARAT SAFIN: Nothing against you guys. I had really personal reason, I explained to the guy, I was not really in a mood to share. But I had really serious, private reasons that I couldn't do it, so I guess it's better for you guys to have a conversation when I am not in the mood, just in a positive way.

MARAT SAFIN: This is why I prevented this. I guess I am fair enough to you guys (smiling).