Marat Safin admitted he had almost given up hope of recapturing the form that made him the world’s best player before embarking on his surprise run to the Wimbledon semifinals.
The temperamental Russian, a former Australian and US Open champion, reached his lowest ebb in the months before Wimbledon when he was forced to qualify for the Hamburg Masters clay-court tournament.
But the world number 75 has found a new lease of life at the All England Club and will face defending champion Roger Federer on Friday in his first Grand Slam semifinal since 2005.
Three years after beating Federer in the Australian Open last four en route to winning the Melbourne title, former world number one Safin is finally back on centre stage.
”I started to think I lost it completely because of the way I played for past year,” Safin said.
”At the beginning of this year nothing really came up. I’ve been losing first rounds left and right. I was really desperate and I didn’t know what to do.
”If you’re not winning matches you’re dropping in the ranking. Also, I lost so many matches that I was close to winning, and then just something slipped away.
”That’s it, the momentum is gone and you lose the confidence. You find yourself 79, 80 in the world. I was 95 even this year and I had to play qualifying in Hamburg. That was really touching the bottom.”
”I tried to do something different, I didn’t have any expectations. Then all of a sudden I started to play better in the clay-court season and the confidence started to come.”
When world number three Novak Djokovic referred to Safin as a sometimes ”mentally unstable player” after the Russian had beaten him in the second round at Wimbledon, he cut to the chase of his opponent’s main problem.
Unlike Federer and Nadal, he has struggled to harness his natural talent with the kind of work ethic needed to stay at the top.
Even against Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, there were signs he might implode when he was given a warning for ball abuse in the first set.
But he kept his emotions in check long enough to win.
”I’m 28, a lot of things already happen in my life. I’m not going to be excited just winning another match. But just for me it’s more like a relief that I made it for first time in my life to the semifinal of Wimbledon,” he said.
”It’s unbelievable. So it really means that I can play on this surface. I’m just surprised I’m still here.”
Safin conceded he would love to have the discipline of a Federer.
”I prefer to have the career of Federer, of course. But I have to deal with the things that I have in my life. A lot of injuries left and right,” he said.
”I’m tired of making comebacks every year. It’s annoying, but that’s my career. That’s my life for good and bad.” — Sapa-AFP