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PACIFIC LIFE OPENMarch 13, 2006Marat SafinINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Questions for Marat. Q. You have to be feeling pretty good? MARAT SAFIN: Pretty tired, but good. Q. Did it give you a sense of justifying the work you've been putting in, the pain you went through to get back to this point? MARAT SAFIN: Well, of course. But actually I was very close to lose this match. I got lucky a little bit. I didn't really felt very comfortable today on the court because I was kind of tired. I was feeling very slow on the court. I was not happy at all with my forehand because I made so many mistakes with it. But otherwise, good fighting, good comeback. I think I did enough to win. And, of course, the luck was there. Q. Do you think he gets nervous playing you? MARAT SAFIN: Well, for sure, because he's No. 1 in Russia, he doesn't want to play against the guy who is out for seven months, and he comes back and basically he has nothing to lose, and he has to face it. It's difficult to deal with the pressure, I guess, for him. Actually, for anybody I think. Q. He was saying that he's No. 1 in Russia, but you're still the big guy. You're the one who was No. 1 in the world and you have the two Grand Slams. MARAT SAFIN: Well, nice from him. But right now the things are changed. But it's a little bit difficult. Not more that I'm No. 1 in Russia, it's the fact that I've been out for seven months and you don't want to lose to the guy who's been out for seven months. I think that's the main reason. Q. A lot of guys have so much trouble with him. Is his ranking above what appears to be his level? MARAT SAFIN: No, ranked pretty good for him. He's a pretty solid guy. He doesn't make any bad losses. He is solid throughout the year. He can play on all the surfaces. Only slips he had was against me in Dubai, against me here. Try and go and beat him. He's very solid guy. He's like 7 in the world or 6. He doesn't look impressive, that's for sure, but -- I mean, compared to Agassi, compared to other players. But he's a newcomer and top 10. He didn't win a Grand Slam, but he's definitely give trouble to Nadal in French Open. He was really close to win it. But let's put it this way, he's not so promoted like, for example, Nadal or other players, like Nalbandian, all these things. But he's a huge player. Q. That would also be why going into this match you could have had good reason to be nervous. MARAT SAFIN: I was nervous, I can admit. I have no problem with that. I was very nervous. The first set, I -- just I couldn't. And then got into tiebreak, we both, I think, would been choking. I lost my serve, then he lost his serve, then again I lost my serve. All the time was back and forth. This is the nerves. Of course, I don't want to lose to him. Of course, he doesn't want to lose to me. It's like a derby. You want it or not, but it's a derby. We both, I think, handled pretty well without discussing things and pushing each other and give the faces to each other. I have to admit, he is a gentleman on the court. He knows how to swallow it. He knows to give the well-done shake after the match. I think it's very impressive, even though he was very close to win it. I have total respect to him. Q. Why would you get nervous? You come back after seven months. You need matches, conditioning. Where did the nerves come from? MARAT SAFIN: Ambitious. Ambitious. First of all, I've been out, okay, but my ranking dropped 52 in the world. I better start climbing back up there, because otherwise I will not get into the tournaments. People, they will not take me as serious as I used to be because I will lose here and there, second round, first round. Then people, they will not -- they will be more confident against me on the court. So it's very important to show everybody that I'm still here and I still know how to play tennis and I'm still fighting. If I'm going to lose, I'm going to lose very tough matches. Of course, I don't want to be stuck in 50s and 60s for the rest of my next five years. Q. But you know as well as you've played in your career that if you bring your best tennis, you can play with anyone. MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, but you need to bring it up. Now is the time to do it. Of course, there's nothing to lose. But the ambitious is still killing me from inside. Anybody who is coming back, he wants to play well, and he wants to get back where he was before the injury. Unfortunately, yes, you understand yourself, you can explain to yourself that it's maybe need some time, let's see how we're going to play, play a few matches here, a few matches there. But at the end of the day, the player is inside of you, and you don't want to lose, you don't want to be a loser in any point, even though you're coming from the injury. But it's just subconsciously, it's how it is. Q. Do the nerves come from in yourself or from what others will think of you? MARAT SAFIN: It's just ego. You are ego inside saying, "No, no, no, I don't want to lose." Like I said, we're players. Even outside, inside the courts, we are all players. We have ego inside of us. We don't want to be losers. You don't want to come up loser on the court. Q. Very broad question. At this level, how much of it really is about forehands and backhands and how much of it is about confidence and mental strength? MARAT SAFIN: Forehands and backhands even can also hit right now. It's unbelievable. Players with unbelievable technique. It's not any more about this. It's how you deal in the situation, tough ones. For example, in the tiebreak, breakpoint, if you manage to come up with that great shot or you are choker. It's either that or you are this. You cannot just be in the middle. You have to be brave in important moments. That's where the level of your game is coming from. Not because you're hitting the best backhand on the practice, best forehand at 1-All in the first set. It's when the important moment comes, let's see if you can manage. Q. When you're hearing all the talk about Nadal, Federer, the big rival, are you saying, "If I wasn't injured, that could have been me? I beat him in Australia, then got injured." MARAT SAFIN: I was supposed to be there a long time ago already, but he took my place (smiling). I think he deserves to be there. The fact he win the last two matches against Federer. He's solid player. We saw how many tournaments he won last year, I think around 10. He won already here, Dubai tournament, being injured for two, three months. He gave trouble to Federer. He's the one who can challenge him. Now the clay court season is coming up. He's favorite to win French Open again. He's an upcoming star. Of course, all the Spanish, they are afraid of him. The rest of the world is also respect him a lot. I mean, the way he's playing, of course he's not impressive technique, with all the respect, but the guy is fighting. The guy is running around and hitting the forehands like crazy. He improved his serve. He knows how to play. Very ambitious. Nothing to lose. Everybody's talking about him. Everybody gives him respect. Everybody who is coming on the court is afraid to beat him. Q. You would not have come back if you didn't think you could get yourself... MARAT SAFIN: Together? Q. Well, top 5 level and competing for Grand Slams. You're not going to come back and be a top 30 or top 40 player? MARAT SAFIN: I would love to. That's my goal. But that's why I'm coming back to the question before, why I'm like this, why I'm ambitious, because I might take it easy at the beginning. It's because of that. I don't want to be stuck in 50, 60s, knowing that I can be there. It's only the hard work, a little bit of luck, and the draws at the beginning because I'm not seeded any more, just to take my chances, be consistent all together. Yeah, be consistent, no ups and downs. Like this I can manage to get a little bit higher and maybe challenge the big players, which I think is Roddick, he's still there. Nalbandian is improving. He improved his game by winning the Masters Cup last year. Federer, Nadal. Yeah, that's the guys. But you have to be there. To be there, you have to be consistent. You have to be tough. Q. At 5-All in the first set, at the far end of the court, you turned around like you hurt yourself. Did something happen there? MARAT SAFIN: I had a problem with my ankle. I twist my ankle so many times. Then I had a bad step. I was a lot of pain. But it goes away. Just for a few seconds was too painful. Q. What's with the long hair? MARAT SAFIN: I still have it. I still have it, man. My father is bald, so I have it now or it will never happen (smiling). Q. When do you plan to have it cut? MARAT SAFIN: Everybody is asking me. I don't know. Soon I guess. But I'm enjoying it, no? It's a little bit tough, but I'm enjoying it. Q. What do the women think? MARAT SAFIN: Who cares? I am happy with myself. This is the most important thing. Q. In the second set of the match, you said something to the linesmen. Started like, "Sweetheart." MARAT SAFIN: "Sweetheart, these points are important for me." Of course, it's 15-40, I serve an ace, and she swallowed it. That's what I said. What else you can ask? Q. Did you really miss tennis when you weren't playing? MARAT SAFIN: Yes, I did. I started to feel it after two months I've been injured. Two months of vacation is perfect, but at the end you start to really see this is your life. You still missing this feeling of being on the court, being playing matches. Whole thing surrounds what is surrounding tennis, I mean, dinners, you're taking care of yourself with the body. At least you are doing something productive. You still playing, and the people are coming to watch you. Because then if you're out, nobody cares any more about you. People start to speak bad about you, you don't want to come back because you have already enough money, you don't want to play because you don't like it, some stupid accusations, some stupid comments. You want to prove it to yourself and to prove it to everybody that I'm not. I'm just really injured and I am coming back. Of course, you miss it. You miss a lot. Still, it depends also on the age. If you are 32 or over 30, that's different. You taking a different approach when you have an injury to come back or not to come back because it's already basically you have another one or two years left. But at age of 26, you're still thinking automatically that, yeah, I have to come back. So ready prepared mentally that I'll be here and I'll be back. Q. Do you think looking ahead for your career that maybe the time off was good to rejuvenate you? MARAT SAFIN: Yeah, definitely. I solved a lot of problems that I had outside of tennis. I think it's much easier for me to play now and to focus on tennis. Actually, it was the right thing. It happened to me the right time. Q. When you made your run in Australia, you hardly played before then. Are you really the kind of player that needs a lot of matches under your belt or can you find your game, it clicks, you're there? MARAT SAFIN: No, I think it's -- it depends. Sometimes when you lose the game, you can find it after one match. But then sometimes it takes me for my eight years of career that I had, and sometimes it took me a while to get back, even though I had tough matches, winning tough matches, my game was not coming back. But you have to keep on trying. Unfortunately, it depends on situation, how you are mentally prepared, what's going on in the head basically. Q. What's going on in your head? MARAT SAFIN: Right now, I want to come back no matter how I'm playing, how bad I'm playing. I don't really care. For example, I was not satisfied the way I played today, but I'm happy that I'm back and I'm happy that I'm winning. Hopefully the next match I'll play, I will play much better, and the match after and the match after. It's a positive thinking. Otherwise, other times with my game I would be so pissed that I don't really focus any more what I'm doing on the court.
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