Marat Safin: Life and Tennis Trivia Quiz

Answer: Davis Cup

The Davis Cup was a team event which saw nations battling it out on the tennis courts to reach the final and, from there, to potentially find international glory. The event was established in 1900, the year before the death of Queen Victoria, and in the early years it was a British-American affair.
Marat Safin was crucial to the success of the Russian team in the 2002 competition and the 2006 competition. In the final of the 2002 Davis Cup, Safin and the Russian team faced France and in 2006, Russia's opponents were Argentina.

Answer: Canada

Marat Safin didn't take long to eliminate Harel Levy and the final score was a two sets to love win for the Russian, 6-2 and 6-3. As a result he won the Canada Masters, a win that he would never replicate coming only as close as the quarterfinals in 2002. One month later, Marat Safin would be propelled to the dizzy heights of professional world tennis when he won the 2000 US Open.

Answer: Spain

Russia, which has a history of producing great tennis players both male and female, could not provide adequate facilities to develop Safin's game. Thus, he left home at an early age to the sunnier climes of Valencia, Spain. As you'd expect, Safin became fluent in Spanish and would eventually become trilingual (English, Russian, Spanish).

Answer: Pete Sampras

Russia's Marat Safin managed to work his way through round after round in New York City until he faced one of the greatest obstacles he could have approached in that era of tennis, Pete Sampras. Now, beating Pete Sampras can never be called easy but the scoreline seems to suggest that that was the case! Safin eliminated Sampras after just three sets, none of which went as far as a tie-break.

The final score for the men's singles event at the 2000 US Open was 6-4, 6-3, and 6-3. Safin had achieved the dream that every professional tennis player has, to win a Grand Slam event.

Answer: Tim Henman

Tim Henman was the only one of the four not to have reached the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam events in his career. The event that prevented him from achieving this was the Australian Open. The furthest he made it in Melbourne was the fourth round. Henman reached the fourth round at the Australian Open three times, but never managed to get to the quarterfinals.

Answer: Boris Becker

Marat Safin impressively managed to win this tournament on three occasions (2000, 2002 and 2004) and Boris Becker won the tournament in 1986, 1989 and 1992. In 1999, Safin came close to winning this event but just lost out in the final to Andre Agassi.
Four Americans had managed to win this event on two occasions (before Safin's career took off) and they were Andre Agassi, Brian Gottfried, Pete Sampras, and Stan Smith.

Answer: Australia

The pressure of any tennis Grand Slam final is intense enough but the intensity is cranked up further when your opponent is from the host country. Despite the pressure Russia's Marat Safin would go on to win his second Grand Slam title in four sets (1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and 6-4).

However, this would prove to be the start of a long drought where Safin didn't win a single tournament in five years.

Answer: Grass

Safin particularly disliked the odd trajectories that the tennis ball took after bouncing on the grass surface and in his defence, you often see some shocking bounces. Even though he disliked the surface he managed to reach the semi-finals of Wimbledon (the only remaining Grand Slam event played on grass) in 2008.

In 2001, Safin reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon but even went as far as reviewing his performance as lucky.

Answer: No

Not passing the first round seemed to be a common occurrence for the former world number one. In 2009 he went out in the third round, second round, first round and first round in the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open respectively. Though it wasn't just 2009 that was a bad year for Safin as he only managed to get past the fourth round on one occasion (Wimbledon 2008) since his win at the Australian Open in 2005.

Answer: Rank 1

Amazingly Dinara Safina managed to claw her way to the top of the women's game without winning at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon or the US Open! This sparked a debate in the world of tennis that lasted a considerable period of time. Essentially the question being asked was, does it make a mockery of the ranking system if the world number one doesn't actually perform to the highest standards at the biggest and most prestigious tournaments?