When talking about favourite activities, I always have many things in my mind. I like listening to music, I like to draw and to write. But if someone asked me to pick only one, it would be very easy: sports. I like many, from soccer to athletics, from badminton to martial arts. But I think that one of the most elegant, most beautiful, most complete sports, is definetly tennis.
Like every sport, tennis has its good and its bad, its great and its ordinary, its heroes and its villains. But if one man can be considered, at the same time, a hero and a villain, this shows me that, before a tennis player, he is a human being. One who is not afraid to be himself on the court and one who is not scared to externalize his feelings because of those journalists who are watching him and who will try to take him down through their articles. All these could be found in one man, one star, one symbol: Marat Safin.
Most people probably know him for his short temper and the high number of racquets he has broken during his years on the tour. My opinion though, is completely different. A powerful tennis player with a killer two-handed backhand and brilliant volleys. Described by the greats of the time as one of the most talented players in the 1990s and 2000s. Winner of two Grand Slam trophies and finalist another two times. Former world no.1. Considered by many the most charismatic player of all times. This is Marat Safin, probably the best Russian tennis player who has ever lived. It is true that he is known for his emotional outbursts during matches. It is also true that he has broken no less than 1055 racquets in his years as a tennis player. But in my opinion, Marat Safin means something else: determination, strength, talent.
I have liked and respected Marat from the first match of his I saw. I remember precisely that I was surprised and delighted to see how strong and determined to win he was. After being two breaks down in the decisive set, after breaking three racquets in only one match and after falling and injuring his ankle, in the moment when no one thought that the match was going to last for more than one or two games, he managed to get up and go on to win. I found it admirable at the moment and I find it admirable now, thinking back of that match.
Unfortunately, at the end of 2009, he decided to say 'good bye' to tennis. He retired after his second round loss at the Paris Masters, trophy he had won three times before. An older injury had stopped him from playing at a high capacity and he said that if he was not going to play well and get back into the top, there was no reason to keep doing that.
In conclusion, as I said before, Marat Safin was an incredible tennis player, regardless of the others' opinion. Everytime I saw him stepping on the court, I felt like with a racquet in his hand, he was like a superhero with his costume on. He has always been able to do magic on the court and I think that if he had been able to conquer his lack of consistency, he could have been now one of the three greats, along with Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg. However, Marat Safin is a name that will always stay written on one of the most important pages of the beautiful book named 'TENNIS'.
