He's been called everything from a head case to a loose cannon, but the Russian is one of the few people to have beaten the world No 1. At Grand Slam events, the first 'marquee' match of the tournament doesn’t usually occur until the third or fourth round. This is primarily because the top 32 players are seeded, which prevents collisions of upper echelon players from happening until later in the opening week. Back in January, this maxim rang true once again at the Australian Open, when Marat Safin was pitted against Andy Roddick in round three. I recall awaking at 3 a.m. for the match, after much discussion about the contest in tennis circles online. Both Safin and Roddick had considerable success at Melbourne, and rather justifiably, this duel of big-swingers was the first highly-touted match of the tournament. I broke this down piece-by-piece at the time, but at the moment, I’m actually having a hard time remembering critical moments of this match. I’m not exactly sure why, because if you look at the numbers, this was a fairly competitive match. Battling for 192 minutes, Safin pushed Roddick to the five-set limit, with the American emerging in the end as the victor. Saying all of that, and after re-reading my post, I didn’t feel like it was exactly a classic match for the archives, even though it featured some fine tennis. Five months later, a similar situation will unfold at Wimbledon, where in the third round, Safin will face Roger Federer, Mower of Lawns. But for some reason, I’m not overly thrilled about this version of the 'marquee' match. Obviously, I’m not going to miss it if at all possible, because of my admiration for Federer, but when it comes to Safin, that’s a different story. I think I’m getting a little tired of him. Since winning the Australian Open in 2005 (in which he defeated Federer in the process), Safin has been unable to win a tournament on tour. This isn’t to say that he hasn’t played well – it’s just that he’s been so maddeningly inconsistent. For every trip to the finals that sparks up the chatter of “he’s back”, there’s been a first-round stinker against a qualifier. For all the Davis Cup accolades, there are wasted opportunities to build upon his two Grand Slam wins. This has all been well documented, and always seems to resurface when Marat wins (“watch out”) or loses (“head case”). That’s why I think I’ve grown away from Safin, who was one of the more intriguing players on tour for a while, in my opinion. “The Russian is nuts” . . . ”you never know what you’re going to get from him” . . . ”he’s a loose cannon” – I get it already. So much so that when Safin wins or loses, I feel the same thing – apathy – which seems to be what Marat feels as well. After watching many of his matches and listening to his comments, it more or less seems like he simply doesn’t care that much any more. Thus, why get too excited either way? Inevitably, the roller-coaster ride will continue as it has for the past two-and-a-half years. After Safin’s first-round victory this week, he said quite openly he has “no confidence” to the press. It only seems to cement my thoughts further. Obviously, Federer could lose to Safin – it’s happened before at a Grand Slam and as I’ve noted, the Russian could have one of those days at the All England Club. I don’t think Federer will suffer a defeat, but if he does, wouldn’t it be tough to stomach it at the hands of a player whose entire career has become a running punchline? I’m sure it would to Roger.
