Hi guys!
This tourney is over. Up to the first Grand Slam of the year! AUSTRALIAN OPEN!
Marat beated Fernando Gonzalez today, with 63 63. Great match preparation for him.
By the way, the AO08 draw is made. Marat plays Ernest Gulbis in the first round. More info about that soon.
Kisses
Marat lost with 36 36 from Andy Roddick! But still it was a good match practise. And it's not over yet! Marat plays the loser of Baghdatis.vs.Gonzalez. These are two respectable players as well so good match practises for the Open!
Good luck Marat:D!
YEAH! An unbelievable start for our Marat! He beated Andy Murray 61 64! Congrats Marat! A wonderful match!
Tomorrow Marat will play against Andy Roddick, as second after a start at 11.00 pm Local Time. For time differences: http://www.timeanddate.com/ or check the World Time Clock on the right;)!
For the interview afterwards: http://www.aamiclassic.com.au/files/SAFIN9JANUARY.doc
Also some pics from the match: enjoy!
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU. I HOPE 2008 WILL BRING YOU LOTS OF JOY, HAPPINESS, LOVE AND HEALH. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE A GREAT YEAR FOR MARAT AS WELL, WITH LOTS OF VICTORIES.
It's a new year, a new start. Not only for Marat but also for our website. Enjoy the new colours and photos. (Don't) like it? Give your opinion in the chat box on the right>>>>>!
Just to make things clear:
A new season, new chances. Marat looks fit and ready for a new begin. And that's what we need, a fresh start at Kooyong Open.
Marat looks good and he says he feels well and is hoping to stay this way the whole season. This contents his physical part, no injuries and no pain in the knee etc. No tennis.
I, and I hope you as well, am going to support Marat this year as good as I can, because he needs to do something this year which will be good for his mental part, the confidence. He has to be confident to win a grandslam or whatsoever. That's why he needs our help to get him over that line.
At Kooyong, AAMI Classic, Marat will face Andy Murray in the first round of Round Robin. This means a tough match, mentally and phisically. Let's not forget Murry is a great player who just won the title of Doha (tournament before Kooyong).
This tournament is more sort of like an exhibition. Marat won't get any ranking points for this tournament. It's more for match practise and preparation for the Australian Open. The tournament uses a Round Robin-system, so Marat will play at least 2 matches, depending on how many matches he wins/loses, he will move on to the nex round.
Marat will play his first match tomorrow against Andy Murray (current ranking: nr. 9). They have met once before in Cincinatti 2005. Marat won this match in three sets.
Remember this: times have changed now.
Marat did that exhibition this week. It probably didn't turned out Marat hoped to, but he got some experience at least. After all, he changed his way of playing.
Marat lost to Dudi Sela with: 16 46.
Marat lost to Stefan Koubek with: 26 67(5)
Koubek told the press that Marat probably was still tired of snowboarding. He was seen on the slopes for a long time! Pictures aren't there yet... maybe soon?!
Yes guys, it has been a while. Sorry for that. There wasn't really much to tell Let's just begin with the news: A WONDERFUL REPORT FROM VALENCIA From: http://www.maratsafin.com/content.php?did=10&aid=39e2105607dde3a05c9faf1a5d553acd Marat in Valencia, preparing the 2008 season Valencia, November the 26th, 2007. By Alexandra Cardoso for www.maratsafin.com The Tenisval Academy, where Marat grew up as a player and where other names such as Igor Andreev, David Ferrer, Anabel Medina-Garrigues and Dinara Safina also train, is situated in an area surrounded by fields of oranges trees and near marsh lands. It's a quiet place where the only sounds to be heard come from the birds, or the occasional dog barking in one of the farms close by. The grounds are large with 12 outdoor clay courts, 2 greenset ones, a football camp, a handball court and a basketball court, and even a playground for children. In the main building you can find the offices, the restaurant/bar, the gym, and the player's lounge. Closer to the courts is the smaller building of the locker room. All around the facilities there are gardens and shaded areas with trees and grass, giving it a soothing atmosphere. Everywhere you can only see kids in tennis gear, teenagers doing fitness exercises, and hear the soft 'thwock' of balls being hit on the courts. It's the perfect place to focus on tennis and getting fit. The practice I arrived there just in time to watch Marat's first tennis practice and during the whole time it lasted Marat and his coach Hernán Gumy practiced only forehand and backhand ground strokes. From the start it was clear that Gumy's objective was not so much to get winners but to perfect Marat's general movement on court, his footwork and his body posture. With every ball that Marat hit, Gumy kept talking non stop: "On tip toes, hit it on tip toes; now dance, dance! Turn around it, yes, good! Breathe, breathe! Do little steps, little steps!" He kept constantly insisting on the technical gestures, correcting the body posture, and insisting on the finalization of each stroke as a way to prepare for the next: "Finish like this, ok? With the arms extended straight out. And don't lean back when you hit it, finish forward". He exemplified a forehand with the follow through ending over the head whilst jumping back as a gesture to avoid: "You jump back when you hit it and you'll end up taking one step backwards, and then you're at a disadvantage. No. Try to finish leaning forward, ok?" They hit rounds of 8, 10, 12, 15 balls at a time for each sequence. Those sequences made Marat move constantly over the backline: from one side to other of the court, than back again, surrounding the ball to hit it from the other side, and then moving forward again for the next stroke. He sometimes made a remark here and there to clarify something but mainly stayed focused the whole time, repeating each sequence of strokes over and over again. And Gumy was constantly encouraging: "Look how nice that forehand was! Perfect, it's just like that! Good! Great, that's it!" At intervals between rounds Gumy would ask Marat "How much?" and Marat would answer looking at a meter on his wrist: 30,... 36,… 40,… 45… Miguel Maeso was around almost the whole time, attentive to his pupil's physical condition and he too was interested in those numbers. Even though he was totally focused, whacking every ball with intention and power, Marat seemed to be enjoying himself. At every pause to rest and drink water, he exchanged jokes with Gumy, with Maeso and with his friend Daní (who was acting as a ballboy), and with other coaches and fitness trainers that happened to walk by. He cursed once or twice with jokes directed at Daní, to which the other one responded by pretending to hit a clownish forehand back at Marat. Everybody was working hard (Gumy and Maeso were already discussing Marat's schedule for the rest of the day), but they all kept a good mood. For example, at one point, when Gumy and Daní were picking up all the balls that were scattered around, Marat grabbed one ball and gave a wicked look at Daní, who was approaching him with a stack of balls pilled high on a racket. He made no gesture, only looked, but Daní read his mind: "Oh, come on! You're not going to hit me with that! At least let me drop the balls in the basket first!" A little while later, it was Maeso who decided to sit on the double bench where Marat had been sitting, but he sat on the other side and almost fell flat on his back. "What the heck! This thing is dangerous!" "Yeah, I noticed there's something wrong with that side of the bench. Take care, if you sit there you could get hurt." said Gumy. "Marat, sit here!" was Maeso's immediate command, said jokingly! But Marat, wisely, pretended not to listen. We are real persons 2 hours later, when the training session ended, Marat was drenched in sweat but the spirit was positive. He confirmed the schedule for the afternoon with Miguel Maeso and Hernán Gumy and then started packing his things. As soon as he was ready to leave the court he called out to me, saying we could talk now (I had asked earlier if he could spare a few minutes and he had agreed). We sat on the bleachers, side by side, and I started by asking him how it had been in the two weeks of fitness that he had just done: MS: "They were ok." AC: "What did you do exactly?" MS: "We did 3 sessions every day of fitness and physical training. Fitness exercises, gym work, beach…" AC: "Beach?" MS: "Running on the beach." AC: "And now? What will be the schedule from now on?" MS: "Now we will be doing 4 sessions everyday, 2 of fitness and 2 of tennis/physical." AC: "How will a typical day be, today for example?" MS: "Well, today it was first breakfast, then leaving the hotel at 9h45, then getting here and doing fitness training, then tennis, then rest and then more fitness/physical in the afternoon." AC: "How long will you be here for?" MS: "Until the 27th"[of December]. AC: "So, you're not going to the Davis Cup…" MS: "No. I'm not ready. I'm not fit right now to face Roddick or Blake." AC: "…and the Bryan brothers…" MS: "…or the Bryan brothers." At this point Marat's expression turned a bit sad when he spoke about DC. I imagine he wished he could be there to help his team as he always had before, but he didn't feel he could be a valuable asset for them at this point. Changing subject I then asked what was that thing on his wrist that he was constantly checking during practice, and what was it measuring. MS: "It measures the heart rate. It's important to be aware of your body. It's not a machine, so you have to pay attention to the effort because you don't want to overload your heart or your muscles." As he was explaining this he suddenly took off his t-shirt, quite naturally, and wiped himself with it before putting on a new one, and I could see strapped across his chest a Velcro band where the heartbeat reading device was attached to. AC: "How were your vacations?" MS: "They were good. I had time to sort out a lot of things I usually don't have time to do because we are on the road the whole year." AC: "And did you have time to forget about tennis? Make a 'reset' to the mind?" He gave me a half smile: "Mainly I had time to organise everything that has to be organised. Sometimes people think it's easy for us, that all we have to do is play but we are real persons, with things we have to take care of outside of the court." AC: "I sometimes think you guys are portrayed almost as cartoon characters, stereotypes, and not real persons." Marat smiled: "We are real persons, with normal lives. Tennis is just our job, just like other people have their jobs. The only difference is that we are lucky to appear on TV." I don't like to read about myself We had gotten up and were walking towards the locker room when the conversation turned to articles and the things people write about him. MS: "I don't like to read about myself. People have their own ideas, and that's ok. Sometimes they write good things and sometimes they write bad things, and then it doesn't matter how much you try to do to make them see how things really are because it doesn't work. You can't change how others think." AC: "I always thought everybody has preconceived ideas about everything, so maybe that's it; they just end up writing about what they think is the truth." MS: "Yes, but if you start paying too much attention to what people say about you, you risk getting too much involved in that, on how others see you, and that's not good for you." We had reached the locker room and I thanked him for his time and wished him all the best with his preparation for the new season. He thanked me as well, gave me a nod and a kind smile and went inside. I then came away and as I was leaving the premises I passed by 2 or 3 teenagers from the academy who were jogging along the road. I couldn't help think of all the times Marat must have done that same thing, jogging along the road that passes between the orange tree fields. Maybe he had done it already that day or was going to do it later. After all, this was just the first day of training, back at the academy! OFFICIAL UPDATE, WWW.MARATSAFIN.COM From: http://www.maratsafin.com/content.php?did=10&aid=8a15fea0edc158b540e5a283ff767686 3rd December 2007 Marat's fitness training went well and he has lost 5 Kgs. He is slimmer, trimmer and raring to go. He and Hernan are so pleased with the way practice has gone that they have decided that Marat needs some competitive matches before going to Australia to begin the new season. Marat will be at the Tennis Trophy at St Anton am Arlberg from 10 - 15 December. The actual exhibition runs from 12 - 15 December. It is called the "The greatest Tennis Party of the World" and there are both male and female participants. St Anton is a well know winter sports area particularly for skiing and they have for 20 years combined this with a tennis exhibition for men and women at this time of the year. Last year Novak Djokovic was there. As there has also been a lot of snow lately in the area, Marat is looking forward to trying snowboarding - now that he is lighter he feels he can do it! He is already a very good skier so this is something else he would like to try in wintersports. Apart from the tennis that is. This tournament is held indoors and will be a good preparation towards starting the year in Australia. Link to the Tournament Website is www.tennistrophy.net The site is only available in German. Marat will travel to Melbourne Australia on 3rd January 2008.
Basketball Court
Football Camp
Playground
Main Building
The Courts
Always positive and enthusiastic, after every round of balls Gumy would draw lines on the ground to show the position he wanted Marat to hit from, and then he would give a new sequence of strokes: "Now: two crosscourt forehands followed by one backhand down the line" or "One forehand inside out, one forehand crosscourt and one backhand down the line", "Ok, now one forehand crosscourt, one down the line and one backhand crosscourt".
The Locker Room
The Grounds
Practice has been going very well in Valencia and Marat and Hernan Gumy are pleased with the progress. The relationship of coach and player is progressing well.
As was seen in the photos that Alexandra Kindly provided from Valencia,(see her article Marat in Valencia preparing for 2008) Marat has changed racquets and is using the new Microgel Prestige which should be on general sale from January 2008. Marat is very very happy with this new racquet as it has a very similar feeling to the Prestige Finesse he used in 2000 and had so many good results with. It feels good to use.
