Marat Safin is arguably one of the biggest wastes of tennis talent in the past ten years. When Marat Safin was at the top of his game his forehand, back hand and court awareness catapulted him to the Number One ranking and two Grand Slams; the 2000 US Open and the 2005 Australian Open. And for other players that would and should be enough. It is enough for Marat, but not for us Marat fans.
Today, May 27, 2009 Marat has us wanting more. The murmurs about French player Josselin Ouanna started last year, and today the Frenchman soon had two sets to none on Marat and faithful long suffering Marat fans feared the worst. Hope started in the third set when Marat started to swing freely, and the talent that made him one of the most feared players on the tour started to surface. Marat pushed the match to a fifth set, where he battled multiple match points before finally losing on Ouanna's fourth match point. The score was 7-6 (7/2) 7-6 (7/4) 4-6 3-6 10-8; the match lasted over four hours.
So why do we want more? What is it? I like to think of our relationship with Marat as a carousel ride. There are ups and downs and eventually your bottom hurts and you want to get off. However, Marat we are not ready to get off the carousel and quite frankly, my dear Marat, I don't think you are ready to get off either. So Marat, wherever you are, I hope you realized how much this still means to you, how much you love this sport to have fought from two sets down, fought against three match points, all to get off this ride too early. The carousel is still going Marat, and we would all like you to stay on.
