Marat Safin Reveals His Plans for His Future

Written by: Staff on 9th December 2011

Marat Safin Reveals His Plans for His Future

Former world number one Marat Safin of Russia returns the ball to US tennis star Pete Sampras during an exhibition match to inaugurate the new Tennis China Open center court in Beijing, China, 30 September 2011. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL |

When he announced that he was going to retire and then played his way through a farewell season, Marat Safin would not reveal what he would do after he hung up his racquets. Many thought he might go into business, a few thought he might take up coaching, but pretty much no-one had any idea that he would enter politics.

But that is what he has done. The former world number one and winner of the Australian and US Opens and a member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party, won a seat in the Duma, Russia’s parliament, during last Sunday’s elections. He will represent the Nyzhny Novgorod region, approximately 500k (310 miles) from Moscow.

Ahead of the election results, Safin explained to the ATP Champions Tour how he reached the decision to pursue his political ambitions.

“My life has been changing for the last two years,” said the 31-year old. “All of a sudden I found myself in a situation where I had to make really serious decisions. It started with one small thing and it grew up to something big.

“I could go and make commercials left and right and pretend like I am a celebrity, but that is not me. I never did this, I never liked it. I had a few months of thinking ‘should I do this or should I not’ but now I am pretty sure of what I’m doing and I want to do it.

“I’m in completely new shoes. This is a completely new life, a new way of thinking, new way of doing things that’s nothing to do with tennis or sports at all. But the two things definitely have one thing in common and that is that you need to have a character.

“You have to be strong and you have to know where you’re going, what you want to do, and you have to be able to make sacrifices. I will be working for the next five years day after day, sitting in an office, wearing a suit. I will have good days, bad days and I will have to fight once again like I’ve been fighting on the court. It will be complicated.”

Safin received the support of Pete Sampras, who the Russian defeated in New York to win his first major in 2000.

“In 20 years Marat will be the President of Russia!” he joked. “Trust me, Marat is going to go a long way. He is very intelligent and articulate and he’s good with people, and that’s half the battle with being a politician.”

Topics: Marat Safin