TELECOM ITALIA MASTERS
Date: 2004-05-04

TELECOM ITALIA MASTERS

May 4, 2004

Marat Safin
ROME, ITALY
The Moderator Questions for Marat.

Question Did you know anything about Pescosolido?
Marat Safin I played against him in '97, so really no.

Question How do you feel in your game and your mental, physical?
Marat Safin No, it was quite good, but conditions are little bit tough. It's windy and the courts are not really in great shape. There is not enough -- a lot of bad bounces, not enough sand, so you slide a lot. So it's -- you have to get used to it, these kind of conditions. For the first match, it was good so... Just to get used to it.

Question As soon as the clay season starts, do you immediately have the French Open in the back of your mind?
Marat Safin But still it's two big tournaments - this one and Hamburg are the main goals for me. Try to get as many points as I can to -- for the Race and also for me to get back into the Top 20 and also try to be seeded in last 16 in the French Open so that this year I will have more or less the draw will be okay, you will not get any surprise. So it's basically everything that you do here, it's very good for the French Open. Also to play more and more matches and get a lot of confidence and move on. And the French Open is already different story. It's five-set matches. And if you can manage to get -- to play well here, you will definitely play well in the French Open.

Question Comparing Rome with other Masters Series, if you had to point out one good positive point about Rome and one negative, which one would you say?
Marat Safin About the tournament?

Question Yeah, the tournament, the location, whatever you find, whatever is particularly good compared to other Masters Series and what is not good compared to other Masters Series.
Marat Safin Well, tough one... There is many, many -- could be many, many positive things. I mean, great city, the crowd is getting great. I can continue this way. But the negative thing is only that the courts could be much better. Only thing that is like -- everything is great. Organization is very well. But the courts are a little bit...

Question Bad?
Marat Safin Yeah.

Question What kind of things did you change in your preparation now that you work with Peter?
Marat Safin No, no, we cannot change anything, just continue doing what I was doing. Little bit small tips. But just you first you are in the stage to know each other - what we like, what we don't like, try to feel comfortable, you know, try to see what kind of person I'm working with. He also wants to learn a little bit about me. And then you can try to do something. Already knowing the person, it's easy to communicate and to improve some things

….