Safina the beneficiary of a failed system
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...it means a whole lot, because it was accomplished with the equivalent of smoke and mirrors. Marat Safin became No. 1 in November 2000, shortly after winning his first Grand Slam title in New...
Blog Entry | Conversation | April 20, 2009Not a snowball's chance to win Down Under
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...and predictions to the usual suspects this time around and do a post in honor of Marat Safin, that well-known alpinist and tennis's patron saint of lost causes. So let's take...
Blog Entry | Conversation | January 16, 2009Nalbandian solely culpable for Davis Cup debacle
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.comIt was supposed to have been a coronation. Instead, as everyone who watched the Davis Cup final this weekend saw, it became a demolition. Those awful ...
Blog Entry | Conversation | November 24, 2008Can we fix the fading YEC
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...is a bad one for the YEC. Look what happened in 2005, when Nadal, Andre Agassi, Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt withdrew from the event, and Roddick lurched out with a bad back -- all...
Blog Entry | Conversation | November 14, 2008Spain's shining star in Beijing
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...writing those words a week before the Olympics, because Gonzalez also happens to rank right behind Marat Safin as an enormously talented player capable of anything -- even though "anything" usually is code for "something...
Blog Entry | Conversation | August 15, 2008Olympic tennis has it's own challenges and rewards
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...s Fernando Verdasco and three men from Wimbledon's most recent final eight, Arnaud Clement (France), Marat Safin (Russia), and Rainer Schuettler (Germany), did not qualify for direct entry. Furthermore, the nations are guaranteed...
Blog Entry | Conversation | July 11, 2008Failed legend-hood
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...because he was out of the game with a bad back in 1990 at just 26. Marat Safin: I'm not going to be the one to sign the death certificate, but at this...
Blog Entry | Conversation | May 09, 2008My Davis Cup clutch players
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...by newly crowned Key Biscayne champion Nikolay Davydenko. The team includes wildly unpredictable and badly slumping Marat Safin (himself a former hero in this competition). Although the Russians are hosting on clay and Stepanek...
Blog Entry | Conversation | April 10, 2008Brevity is the soul of wit
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...hit a second serve when break-point down. Out, damned spot! Out I say: Said by Marat Safin, while watching one of his many line-call challenges rejected by HawkEye. Safin insists that HawkEye...
Blog Entry | Conversation | February 15, 2008Tone set for 2008 season
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...than an international cell-babe icon planning her world domination from a home base in California. Marat Safin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva: Wasn't it just yesterday that these folks were winning majors (or...
Blog Entry | Conversation | January 29, 2008Freaky Slam
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...tried a between-the-legs, back-to-the-net passing shot on a match point against Marat Safin two years ago. As Jimi Hendrix said, Fly your freak flag high! There are many reasons...
Blog Entry | Conversation | January 11, 2008Gap closed on Fed in 2007
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...that it was all some kind of big, terrible mistake. Andy Murray kept getting hurt, and Marat Safin allegedly showed up in Canada and applied for asylum (he's a conscientious objector against playing...
Blog Entry | Conversation | December 07, 2007Sampras still has something left
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...stinging serves backed with solid stroking skills. Two of Federer's rivals almost fit that mold: Marat Safin and Andy Roddick. But Safin proved insufficiently dedicated and, as it turned out, he wasn't...
Blog Entry | Conversation | November 25, 2007David is goliath
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...triumvirate, and we're not talking 2007, buck-o. That's career. Multiple Grand Slam winner Marat Safin is vying for some kind of lifetime achievement award with his measly three Ws over that...
Blog Entry | Conversation | November 01, 2007Davis Cup double trouble
Peter Bodo, TENNIS.com...as a mom to 1-0. And did you hear the news sizzling out of Moscow? Marat Safin won't be available for Davis Cup, he's part of a Russian expedition climbing the...
Blog Entry | Conversation | September 17, 2007TOP SEARCHES IN NOVEMBER
Bowl Projections tops ESPN.com searches in November. Did "marat safin" make the list?