WIMBLEDON
Date: 2005-06-22

WIMBLEDON

June 22, 2005

Marat Safin
WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND
The Moderator Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon. Marat Safin. Questions in English, please.

Question Coming next is Feliciano Lopez. You are three head to head, you lose two. Feliciano is winning 2-1. What do you expect in this match?
Marat Safin Well, it's a difficult match, first of all, because he's a lefty, he has his serve. To play against him on grass, it's actually very tough, especially that he pass first two rounds. He must be playing pretty good. He had a very tough match in the first round, so it's going to be a really tough one. I think it's one of his favorite surfaces, is grass. Grass, indoors and really fast hard court. So is a tough match, and let's see if he can serve as well as he was serving days before.

Question When did it come to you that you no longer feared grass, if that happened?
Marat Safin Two weeks ago.

Question Two weeks ago, in Halle?
Marat Safin I pass through the difficult moments in my life, really difficult times on grass during my seven years of my career. And I couldn't really find myself comfortable on that surface until I played Halle. I made, like I said, some good results. I beat some tough players there. All of a sudden I felt comfortable. I felt really comfortable moving on it. Just I think it's one of the most important things, actually, when you're playing on grass, is to move. If you serve well, and to find actually the return, all of a sudden all this came to me and I felt pretty good.

Question Why do you think that was all of a sudden that it just came to you after so long?
Marat Safin Well, I don't know. There's a lot of things in life that we don't know why they're coming exactly this moment. It's just coming. I don't know how to explain it.

Question So what are your feelings right now about grass as a surface?
Marat Safin That I'm comfortable playing on it and I'm confident and I make some great results two weeks ago and I made some great matches here, I think, for the first and second round. This was pretty good - pretty good performance, especially today. That's how confidence coming back, especially on grass. It's really important to have a confidence - confidence and a comfortable feeling on it.

Question Roger Federer was in here before and said when you were playing together in Halle, he never had seen you so relaxed out on court. He suggested perhaps it has to do with the knee injury, that you've got in the back of your mind if things don't go well, there's a ready-made reason for that. Is there any truth to that?
Marat Safin Well, I don't have any reasons. If I don't want to play, I don't want to play. It's just there is no -- I don't need to find a really good reason for myself, you know, so I don't have to feel really depressed after the match and saying I'm going to lie myself, no, it's because of the knee. It's because of nothing. You know, I felt I found my game, and I was feeling comfortable, and I had nothing to lose - especially in the final against him, because he won two years in a row, even three. I was enjoying really. I was enjoying the match. I had my chances and I was really playing great tennis. I had nothing to complain about. I was serving well and I was returning well. I had my chances actually, and I couldn't take them. But I have no regrets. I have no -- I don't need to find a reason. I don't need to find a reason so I have to take off the pressure. I have a different problems, you know, dealing with the pressure. But I don't need to say to myself, "Well, if I'm not playing well, it's because of my knee." No.

Question Do you think Philippoussis can come back from where he is? His ranking is going to be pretty low after that, to get back into the Top 20 or 10?
Marat Safin Philippoussis?

Question Yes.
Marat Safin Yeah, but with Mark it's a little bit difficult story. If you follow him for the past five years actually, he had so many injuries. And he's a tall guy. I mean, like he's pretty heavy. He needs to take care of -- needs to take care of himself really, you know, like need to travel with a doctor. But from other point, when he start to fall down, like everything start to collapse, like the knees, the ankles, the back, it's difficult to come back. Because it's tennis coming one thing after another, after another, after another. And then you just are falling apart and you find yourself, you know, like completely -- you cannot play then at the end. Actually, I don't know how many years, about for five years, he had like four or five injuries, but bad ones. You know, he didn't play for one year. Then he didn't play for six months. Then he didn't play for three months. So, of course, it's difficult to find the confidence. Of course, it's difficult to find the game. Like today, he got injured again. So it's difficult, you know, to say that if you're going to be back in the Top 20. Of course, his potential is he can be even in Top 10. But this is not the case. I mean, like, the poor guy is just -- the body is not helping him.

Question Do you think he was at full strength today?
Marat Safin Well, I felt a little bit in the third set, yeah, he couldn't really move to the sides. That's how I made to him a break actually. And I cannot say much because he had a great potential actually as a player.

Question Is this the first time you've really had fun playing Wimbledon? How important is that to your success?
Marat Safin Again.

Question Is this the first time you've enjoyed yourself here?
Marat Safin Yup.

Question And how important is that for you as a player to be having fun?
Marat Safin Actually, for every single player in this world, it's really important to have fun on grass, because it's tough surface. Everybody knows. Nobody can lie to you. Like it's difficult to make a break. It's difficult to play on the baseline because a lot of bad bounces. So you have to play kind of a game that is not really comfortable for you, is not really your game, because you need to adjust yourself to the grass. And if you're not having fun, it's just -- it's impossible to do anything good here. You can't have any expectations if you are suffering and if you are struggling. That's what happened to me for the past -- actually, during all my career, except one lucky year that I made it in quarterfinals. So now that I'm enjoying, of course I have my expectations. Of course, I want to play well. Of course, I want to do well. Unfortunately, I don't have really easy draw this year. But I probably deserve it, because the years before I had the easy ones and I couldn't make even past the first round. I have to pay the price, I guess. But I think the way I'm playing, it's okay.

Question If you're having so much fun on grass now, how far realistically do you think you can go in this tournament?
Marat Safin Geez, we're just in Wednesday. I cannot speculate about. I didn't even saw the draw. I know I have to play next match against Lopez. I don't want to see any more the draw, because every time I trying to look in the draw and I try to see where more or less I can get, then, it's like I'm like losing the next day. So I'm trying to go step by step slowly and doing my job and try to focus a little bit, try to be focused on one match. One match after another I think is the best for me. I have no pressure then. I'm playing my match. I'm enjoying whatever, I win, I lose. Who comes next, it doesn't really matter if you're playing well.

Question How are your inner feelings about your knee? Is still okay?
Marat Safin Like I said always -- well, "always," for the past two months. Some movements are really bothering me. Sometimes I can't -- it's just a lot of pain. I have to deal with that. I cannot give up the secrets. But it's painful. Sometimes it's really painful.

Question What was your first contact with a grass court?
Marat Safin '98.

Question Where?
Marat Safin Here. I got the wildcard actually. Lost to Medvedev. No chance. '99 why I play at all.

Question So it started right away when you touched it, smelled it, felt it?
Marat Safin And I felt that is not my surface.

Question You mentioned the pain. How much pain have you felt during this tournament, if any?
Marat Safin I'm saying, yeah, I have continuously pain. Some movements -- after some movements, it's like it's really painful. It's really painful, but I have to deal with that, because then the pain goes away and then comes back. It's not a continuous pain, like I'm struggling all the time. It goes away a little bit, but then it's come back. It's coming back after certain movements. I have to really -- well, I get used to it.

Question Which knee?
Marat Safin Left knee.

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