By Scoop Malinowski | Thursday, September 13, 2018

Marat Safin brought magic and madness to court and remains a game-changing champion.

Safin and sister Dinara Safina hold a record that may not be broken in our lifetimes: They are the only brother-sister tandem in history to attain the world No. 1 rankings.

Watch: 18 Takeaways From 2018 US Open

Tennis was part of Safin's family—his mother, Rauza Islanova, an outstanding coach introduced both children to tennis and served as their first coach.

"I started at the age of two—two months," Safin quipped. "To understand that, you need to live with that. (Tennis) was a huge part of our life." 

The explosive Safin was just 20 years old when he shocked Pete Sampras in the 2000 US Open final shattering one of the game's biggest servers to win his first career Grand Slam title and leaving an impressed Sampras to remark Safin "reminds me of me."

Author Scoop Malinowski interviewed 40 players, who share their memories of playing Marat Safin, one of the most intriguing champions and characters in the history of tennis, in his new book Facing Safin, available on Amazon for $9.99.

Tennis world figures share additional insights and anecdotes about the Russian tennis superpower,  who reached the ATP world no. 1 ranking in 2000 and won the 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open, as well as two Davis Cups, the first two in Russian tennis history.

Scoop Malinowski has published six previous tennis books: Marcelo Rios: The Man We Barely Knew, Facing Federer, Facing Nadal, Facing Hewitt, Facing Sampras and Facing McEnroe.

Here's an excerpt from Facing Safin.

"I totally understand him."—Roger Federer

"It's crazy how strong he is inside."—Evgeny Donskoy

"I think that's his curse. He had too many things going for him."—Dmitry Tursunov

"Physically the best player in the world is Marat Safin. He's better than Federer."—Vince Spadea

"He was a very nice player to watch. Nice outside the court, on the court, nice technique. Everything was almost perfect."—Dudi Sela

"He said he wished he could live as carefree as me someday."—Jeff Tarango

Jeff Tarango on facing Marat Safin: "It's a little intimidating even being on the court. You stand there and you're always looking up. How tall is that state building there you're looking at?

"You start checking out when he's hitting balls and you realize he looks boney at first but it's all muscle. And then you say, 'I'll just move him side to side' and then you realize he runs really well. And then you say, 'You know, I'm gonna beat you with strategy' and he looks at you (as if to say) I could read minds and I don't have a strategy [laughs].' And it's pretty intimidating.

"Remember (Pete) Sampras playing him here in the finals and Sampras was at the absolute top of his game, I think, career-wise and he just made Sampras look like a beginner. I mean, he just hit every Sampras serve as hard as he could. His big serve - Pete couldn't get any returns back. And it was just a complete dispatching of maybe the best player of all time.

Even Pete said (after) 'there was absolutely nothing I could do.' And if Pete Sampras says there was nothing I could do, that's a formidable opponent."



Question: Were you able to have any kind of success against Marat?

Jeff Tarango: "I did. I broke his serve in Gstaad in doubles in the first game of the match of the final. And he was playing with Federer. And then it rained for three days and we couldn't play anymore. So I consider it a win [laughs]."

Question: Do you have a lasting memory of Marat?

Jeff Tarango: "Marat Safin...'Jeffrey I wish I could be like you.'"

Question: He said that?

Jeff Tarango: "Yeah. Because I'm from Manhattan Beach, California. And he's from Moscow. He moved to Spain. And he left Spain, back to Moscow. And he just said that he wished he could live as carefree as me someday in Manhattan Beach but it'll never happen [laughs]."

Question: Do you remember where he said this?

Jeff Tarango: "Moscow. We were out one night having fun. I'm sure he didn't mean it [laughs]."

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Dominik Hrbaty on facing Marat Safin: "Playing Marat was something always different from other players. He has such good hands, playing so fast from the end and always so relaxed kind of person. When you play against him you feel that he just has a huge potential, to try any shot on the court, any position and the shot can go in.

"You have to be really ready for all the shots, all the possibilities that many times we cannot even imagine. And also, on the other hand, the crowd love him, the way the person that he was and it was also something enjoyable sometimes not to play against him because he could get really angry, he could get really happy, he could get...just show any type of emotion. That was fun to play."

Question: Were you able to have success against Marat?

Dominik Hrbaty: "I think we were like seven-all or 8-7 me at the end. We played like fifteen or fourteen times. The last one I won in Hopman Cup. I always loved to play against him because kind of like nice fighting spirit. He knew that I'm not going to give him anything free.

"The other hand, I know that he was a tough opponent. Same kind of thing in practice. We practice a lot and he was kind of giving me like a hard time, but like making fun that I will play till like I'm 40 or I die on the court. We were really good friends buddies and I enjoyed many times with him."


Question: You both must have had some incredible matches, two explosive ball strikers. You hit the ball so flat, he hit so hard, you two must have produced some amazing tennis matches?

Dominik Hrbaty: "All the matches were close. And a lot of the matches were decided by one, two or maybe three balls. And many of these matches finished 7-6 in the third, 7-5 or 6-all. It was nice. So it was really enjoyable playing these matches. And to watch them. Also he was top-ranked player, he was No. 1. Any time you play against those types of players, it's a special match."



Question: Do you have a lasting memory of Marat?

Dominik Hrbaty: "When we played Hopman Cup. It's more of a tournament for preparation for Australian Open. But of course I took it as a tournament representing my country (Slovakia) so I was very focused, he was relaxed. And we played the final match of the finals. And I won I think 7-6 in the third.

"And the beginning of the match, like when I was fighting, he was saying, 'What the fuck is wrong with you, man?! Just saying things like this. In the end, during the ceremony, he was again saying he enjoyed times with me and also that I will probably be spending time forever there. So he was fun always. Marat was really nice."

Author Scoop Malinowski's latest book Facing Safin, is available on Amazon for $9.99.