US OPEN

September 3, 2006

Marat Safin

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Did you feel like things were slipping away a little bit in the third and fourth sets?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I just had the match in control after two sets and I let him come back. I wasn't really got a little bit scared because I was playing too well, then I start to think a little bit too much, I stop to attack, I change a little bit my game, then he started to play his tennis. That's, of course, difficult to compete against him on his way.

Q. Up and down career at the US Open. How does it feel to be in the second week playing good tennis?
MARAT SAFIN: Thanks to the rain, I'm in the second week. Actually, it feels pretty well, especially beating good players like Nalbandian. Hopefully I will play much better next match and I can continue heading closer to the final.

Q. Was it hard to concentrate at the end of the match with Agassi's game and so many distractions?
MARAT SAFIN: Actually not. You're so much into the game, you don't really care. Because you have already enough of your problems, you're so concentrated, you don't really pay attention to that.

Q. How did you feel you played in the tiebreaker in the fifth set?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, I started I was lucky to start with actually 5 1 in five minutes. I made double fault, he made double fault, then was the let. And the he shoot a couple of times and I played one lucky shot, 5 1. But then started went completely other direction.
But it's like a lottery basically. It can go any way.

Q. He's so good countering, does he make you want to go for it on the points? Is it that you knew you had to be aggressive at that moment?
MARAT SAFIN: No, just the nerves are really like at hundred percent. Of course, you don't want to find yourself in a losing position serving. You go for a little bit too much, maybe you're a little bit too scared just to make sure you place it in the right spot. You are in control of the point. Of course, it's a tiebreak, so the nerves are there.

Q. You have a pretty good five set record. You beat Grosjean. What do you tell yourself in a fifth set? How do you keep it together?
MARAT SAFIN: Just keep on trying, keep on trying. Not much you can do. You cannot start putting the balls inside the court and wait for the mistakes of other players. You have to attack. If it goes in, it goes in. If it doesn't goes in, it really doesn't. To be on the baseline, try to wait for mistakes, I'm not going to win a lot of matches anyway. That's my tennis. That's how I should play.
Of course, it's a lot of risk also I'm taking. That's my tennis. I have to live with that, and I'm living pretty well.

Q. Do you think at one point Nalbandian got a little down on himself, the dropshots he missed?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, the dropshot he missed on match point, of course it's nerves, it's nothing else. He did everything right. He gets too scared. He wanted to make it too perfect. But I was not getting any closer to the dropshot. He went for a little bit too much.

Q. As you try to regain your best form, how much has the coaching played a part in that?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's very important to have somebody right now in my position to have somebody to push me and give me a little bit of confidence and try to understand me, what's going on in my head not only tennis, but also some other stuff, to be able to support me and also in difficult moments sometimes to speak to me in the match because it's pretty like it's a lot of pressure I'm going through. Also on the matches, especially long ones, you need somebody behind you. You need somebody to be there for you basically. Alex, he knows me pretty well from long time ago, so he's kind of just, in the sense, my situation. We can speak the same language, in the sense, and he understands what's going on. So it makes me really happy.

Q. Have you been feeling more comfortable lately?
MARAT SAFIN: It's the only guy that we can speak about he is one of my closest friends, off the courts also. He knows pretty much about my life. He also can he's a little bit older. He has a lot of experience in life. He understands. He's been a player. He's been a great player. Just more mental part so I can cry on his shoulder basically. He understands. He puts me together. He want me to win, which is great. He's there for me from the beginning till the end.

Q. Having won a US Open title, do you feel that's the expectation for you every year from then on, and in other people's eyes, it's a letdown if you don't get that far?
MARAT SAFIN: I won it six years ago. I made the semifinal here 2002 I guess. Of course, every time you come back, once you win it, you want to get closer to the final. You don't really pay attention to the first couple of rounds. You just want to get there somehow.
But now these days, it's a little bit different story. A lot of things have changed. A lot of good players left, and some other players came. The young ones, they're hungry. You have to run from day one until the end. There's no any more easy matches. Anybody can beat anybody. You have to be really focused. It's not easy as it used to be.

Q. When did you start that relationship, player/coach relationship? Why did you ultimately choose him?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, because I was here for one month and a half. I was getting really not really lonely, but I need some help. I called him because he's the only person that I can that I know him for really let's say '97. He been great to me throughout the years. I just ask him to come and just help me, just to be able to understand me.
He's the one that I'm playing with tennis with him when I'm back in Moscow. He's like a sparring and he understands. He feels me. That's why I took him. I ask him to help, and he flew over. He's here and he helping me, wants to make sure that I'll be winning.

Q. What is your opinion on Argentine tennis nowadays?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, great players. I mean, not great past with all the doping things and all the other things around. But I'm not going to judge it. Everybody takes their own sensibility. Otherwise you have a great school. You have great players, I don't know how many players in top hundred, but also a lot of players that are coming from 100 to 200 and higher. Everybody's great. Everybody's working hard.
I think it's just coming from a great school. Keep it up.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports