For a brief time, Marat Safin was one of the best players and greatest talents in the history of tennis; the world had ever seen. In fact, on his day, he could have outplayed anyone. The former great won two Grand Slam titles during his career.
Long back, he beat American Tennis star Pete Sampras at the Ju Es 2000 and Roger Federer at the Australian Open in 2005. He was capable of much more laurels, but the Russian had a fiery character that did not go down well with many.
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Recently, in an interview, he expressed himself about the best three of the present day (Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal). Safin spoke well of Djokovic and said that if he maintains his health, then he will play well till he is forty and will certainly break Federer’s record of most number of Grand Slam titles. He said: “I think Novak will overcome Roger. He has a lot of time left. He is 32 years old, isn’t he? Everything is about circumstances, but if he is healthy and he keeps playing this way, he will be able to perform until the 40 years of age”.
“Our generation had issues – Kuerten and Nalbandian were bothered by a hip, me the knee. At 30 years of age, you already feel old as you have played for 15 or 16 years. I ended at 29 years because of an injury”, Marat told the reporters.
Safin further added: “But, Federer was lucky, during his career, he avoided big injuries.”
Today, Safin is hardly active in the tennis arena except for his sporadic comments. He spoke about his past in the interview saying: “I was lucky. I never wanted to be a tennis player; my childhood dream was to be a football player for Spartak. But since my mother was a coach, I had no chance to become a footballer and thank God it happened this way.
However, Safin admitted saying that: “Tennis made me live a good life. I am grateful to my parents for insisting on it. In the 90s Russia was going through a difficult situation; a schoolmate of mine did not work for six years. Sport has hidden these issues. But I do not miss tennis. The desire of winning got lost”.
And, further concluded saying: “Politics is much more interesting. Now I travel, and I see many places around the world”.
