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U.S. OPEN

August 31, 2007

Marat Safin

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What are your thoughts on the match today and the situation?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, everything I tried didn't work out. It was kind of a weird match. I couldn't really feel comfortable out there. I had a couple of chances to break him back at 5-3 first set. Slipped away. The guy did much better. Start get much more confident on the court and he was going for it. Everything was on his side and I just couldn't get back into the match.

Q. Is there anything different about the grandstand court game, the closeness of it, the people on top of you?
MARAT SAFIN: No. Not really. Didn't bother me much. It wasn't that problem. I have these kind of matches, just whatever you try to do, it doesn't work out. Just then you just hope. But today didn't work.

Q. Have you played a lot on the grandstand?
MARAT SAFIN: I played last year and the year before. It's okay. It was same.

Q. You said he was going for it. Did you feel like you weren't going for it?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, probably he was going for it for the right -- with the right balls, with the right shots, and he had nothing to lose. He played a very long match two days ago, so I guess finally found his rhythm on the court. And he was much more comfortable today. The way he was serving the last two sets was pretty impressive, so he had a lot of free points and easy balls and hitting down the lines. Whatever he was trying to do was great.
I just didn't have the opportunity to break him or try to do something different because the guy was pretty fast and I wasn't really at my best.

Q. How is it going, your working together with Hernan Gumy?
MARAT SAFIN: Much better than before, for sure. Still have to work. One month is not enough to make a big change, so have to move on and work and see if the results are a little bit later.
It's very difficult to have results right away.

Q. What goes through your mind on a day when the things are completely going the opponent's way and you don't feel at your best?
MARAT SAFIN: You know how many times I have like this? I'm used to it. You have to try until the end. Maybe something will -- he will start to get a little bit nervous or maybe I would hit a couple of good shots and everything can change. But today didn't really look this way, so I guess you have to swallow it. And one bad day off, there is not much you can do. That's it. The day is over and we move on, back to our lives.

Q. You said the other day that you don't like looking back to the past to winning here. You live in the present and look to the future. What do you think the future holds now?
MARAT SAFIN: For me?

Q. Uh-huh.
MARAT SAFIN: Only the most beautiful moments still to come. The past wasn't bad for me, but the future is -- that's why I will hope for the best. That's why moving through life I think the best moments are still to come. It can be tennis or anything different. Just have nothing to do with tennis.
Maybe. Maybe it is. Maybe still be here and maybe next year I will win a couple of Grand Slams, you never know. But just I'm sure the best moments still to come.

Q. Do you still enjoy tennis as much as that day when those doors sort of went open and in came the lobster to celebrate your win?
MARAT SAFIN: Oh, yeah. I'm still -- I don't like to lose. I love to win and I enjoy the moments on the court when it's a battle and you have to deal with the tough situation. I just -- it's a little bit different perspective than used to be before.
Before it was all new and all interesting, and now I've been here for already ten years maybe. It's a little bit different. You approach different way. I don't hang out anymore here on the player's lounge. It was the second time in the last two weeks that I went upstairs.
You know, so you take at that different way. We spend more time in the city and spend much less time here with the players. But still I love it. I love to do that, otherwise there is no other reason -- nothing else holding me here.
Just the results, playing on the court and have this adrenaline when you're playing in front of 5, 10,000 people. It's the most beautiful feeling.

Q. When you won here in 2000, Sampras said you were able to be No. 1 in the world for as long a time as you wanted to. Do you think you still can go to the top?
MARAT SAFIN: See, even the geniuses make the mistakes. He was wrong.

Q. You seem somewhat resigned to taking the losses. Does it bother you at all?
MARAT SAFIN: Why? I just -- the thing is no matter how many times I will explain to the people, doesn't matter how many times the people ask me, they wonder why I didn't win the five Grand Slams, ten Grand Slams, why I only win -- win two and two finals.
But once again, if the people look at me when I was 17 and I had no money and my mother gave me only $500 to go Roland Garros and the French Open and try to look for some money, to come from there from having nothing, zero, and to become what I achieve right until now, well, it's a long way.
I could have end up anywhere in Moscow or Russia doing God knows what. I'm sitting here and you're asking me pretty nice questions, so I think I did pretty well in my career.

Q. What do you think you might be doing if you stayed back home?
MARAT SAFIN: I don't want to think about it, because my classmates from school they are not really -- did not do well in their lives. So I don't even want to think about it. So also from where I'm coming from, I did pretty well.

Q. In the new Russia, what kind of things have they done, your classmates?
MARAT SAFIN: Nothing. That's the problem. They didn't achieve anything in their lives, and that's only people that I knew back then. At age 17 I had nothing planned and no cash and my sponsor dropped me and nobody wanted to help me in the Federation because it was difficult times.
The last source was my mother. She gave me $500 and said, you have luck or you don't have luck. So this is your last hope. Take the $500 and go to the French Open and try to look for some money. So.
So I think this is tough situation, and here sitting here and asking about speculation about how many Grand Slam I should have won, it's a little bit funny.

Q. How do you like Wawrinka's game?
MARAT SAFIN: Today he played pretty well. I didn't expect that he's going play such great tennis for all three sets. I thought he will have a small dip and then I would take -- I was waiting for it at the end and then he was starting to play better and better.
Forehands, even from the forehand, which is not his best side he was winning or making winners down the line. Serving well. Last two sets backhand was great.
So I think if he continues to play this way he will be really good, but unfortunately his ranking doesn't go with his game. So I think he played extraordinary today.

Q. You mentioned doing things in New York City during the Open. What kind of things?
MARAT SAFIN: Well, there's not much you can do. You can go for a walk in So-Ho, typical things. It's not like we doing something extra that other people can't do. But just it's not like every week where I spending time in Europe.
So even having coffee outside sitting cafeteria somewhere downtown really it's a big deal. Having coffee I sitting for one hour and looking for the people it's already one of the pleasant moments of the day.

Q. What part of the city?
MARAT SAFIN: So-Ho. I'm not a big fan of uptown.

Q. Do you think you will come to Buenos Aires to play the tournament there?
MARAT SAFIN: No. Too far away.

Q. What are your Davis Cup thoughts right now?
MARAT SAFIN: Hi, Jeffrey. Well, depends. We are pretty good team, so doesn't matter who will play there. We're favorites and I think we're going win and be in the final against the States.

Q. Do I think you'll play the States or Sweden?
MARAT SAFIN: Yeah. Well, Sweden, I don't know why, but they choose play indoor hard courts. I don't think it's the best surface to play against Americans. But we going to be there.

Q. At what point in your life did you become able to put things in perspective the way you have now? Is it recent sort of development?
MARAT SAFIN: No. Intensive years of life. Short but intensive.

End of FastScripts

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