adidas International

January 7, 2003

Marat Safin

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, can't be any better. Was good enough.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, just play a few matches, try to get some confidence and just prepare yourself for the Australian Open. I mean, I need -- I'm okay. I think I'm in the right way.

MARAT SAFIN: I like the way he's playing always. He's one of the most talented players on the tour. He's smallest guy probably on the tour, but he has such a great hand. He's very talented. Great anticipation, great hands, and just, yeah, great player.

MARAT SAFIN: I didn't have any break, actually. It's tough to play all the time, you know. I'm just playing tennis all the time, and it's pretty tough. I'll try to play less this year, so just I will not get tired of tennis, it's one of the most important things. Just to have enough motivation to keep going and keep on playing matches and just to be able to win some tournaments, you need to have -- you know, be inspired, have enough motivation to keep on going.

MARAT SAFIN: Many players, many players are not -- they're not actually really satisfied the way, you know, because we have the shortest vacations like in any sport. Every other sport, they have longer vacations and they have enough time to recover, you know, to have vacations with your family and then just to prepare yourself for the next season. We have nothing. This year I had two weeks of vacation. So, I mean, there is nothing, no time to do something. If you want to fly somewhere to have vacations, just you can spend like ten days somewhere.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah. Is the only thing I could do, just stay at home. At least this way I am -- I spend one month at home, two weeks doing nothing and two weeks practicing. It's two weeks doing nothing, is just anyway you have to do something. Because we won Davis Cup, so we have to go to speak to the president, then we have to go to another president, then we have to go to the mayor, then we have to do something, some other things. Like this, you don't really rest, because every time you have to use your brain, you have to think what to say, what to do, how to, you know... Also, you cannot come with the face like you went out until late and just appear in front of the president and just have a smell of alcohol from your mouth. So just you have to be prepared for this.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, it's nice. You know, like because normally the people in Russia, they criticize you a lot, you know, because they don't accept when you lose. They accept only when you win, and they think you have to win every time. Every tournament you play, you have to win. It doesn't work this way. Thank God we won Davis Cup. Otherwise, we would have more and more they will speak bad about us. You know how it is. It's difficult. But we won, so everybody's happy, and that's it. You have to enjoy the moment.

MARAT SAFIN: Youzhny was the guy who was -- just took all the attention because he arrive first, and we knew the press gonna wait for him in the airport. Kafelnikov also, I think. But me, I stayed a little bit, I stayed three days in Europe, and then I came and nobody knew when I came and which flight. So nobody disturb me.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, just pulled a little bit the muscle, but it's okay. No problem.

MARAT SAFIN: Just not, you know, like didn't have the massage for a long time, like for a month. So just my muscles are little bit tight. I'm getting back to my work and I am receiving massages every day, so it will be okay.

MARAT SAFIN: In what way?

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, just, you know, the tournaments that I like, the tournaments that really I feel like playing, you know. I'm not gonna play tournaments that I don't -- for me, it's little bit difficult. There are some places you can play easily and some tournaments it's really tough to play. So I choose the tournaments that I like. I feel like, you know, I like the crowd, the crowd they like me. So I don't have to go to the places where the crowd don't like me.

MARAT SAFIN: I don't know, 25. I didn't count them. But just less. Tournament -- I choose the tournaments that I like.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, just I'm gonna play -- the same. I'm not going to play a lot on clay because you have to run a lot. So I'm just hard court and indoors, that's it.

MARAT SAFIN: No, no, no. That's the tournament that I would like to do well. I never did well there, so I would like to prepare myself and just try to do -- try to do something back. Because it's a little bit strange that I cannot play on that surface. For me, it's like I don't understand why. So I will try to find out this year and I will try to prepare myself and I will try to do all the things properly. I like to have a chance to, you know, if Lleyton -- if Nalbandian was in the finals, I think it means I can do well there.

MARAT SAFIN: No, we just -- we didn't talk to each other since long time, so... But I see him every time in Wimbledon. So we have a chat, that's nice.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, Queen's and Rosmalen. I would like to prepare myself to do well.

MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, but for the first match, it's tough, you know. Also, you see the conditions. The wind is like sometimes the ball -- just you don't know where it's gonna come. You try to hit the forehand, it's coming on your backhand. It's tough. It's tough to do something big here. It's tough to work on something. It's tough even to play from the baseline. So just you try, you play, you feel the ball. Just don't put under pressure yourself, that's it. Not much you can do here.