MOSCOW U.S. Open champion Marat Safin, who struggled earlier in the season and changed coach four times this year, said he had been ready to quit tennis just six months ago before his fortunes changed for the better.
"At the time I felt like giving up for good," Safin said following his win over Italian Gianluca Pozzi in the second round of the Kremlin Cup on Thursday.
"Believe me, when you lose match after match to even some unknown guys on the tour you want to quit this game." Safin, 20, broke with his first coach, Spaniard Rafael Mensua, when he struggled in the first four months of the season with a 5-11 record.
At the Australian Open last January the Russian was even fined $2,000 by the organizers for not trying hard enough during his first round loss to South African qualifier Grant Stafford.
But Safin turned things around under a new coach, former Russian player Andrei Chesnokov, winning his first title in Barcelona in April and another in Mallorca a week later.
"I'm very thankful to Andrei for all his help," Safin said.
"Not only he did he teach me a few things in tennis but more important he advised me on how to behave off the court as well.
He really gave me lessons in life." Safin said that his handshake agreement with Chesnokov was intended to last only until the French Open.
"After that we decided to break off," he said. "Chesnokov didn't feel like traveling with me from tournament to tournament, he wanted to stay with his family in Paris." Just before Wimbledon, Safin turned to Britain's Tony Pickard, once the coach of former Wimbledon champion Stefan Edberg, to learn how to play on grass.
Then, for the U.S. Open, Safin employed another former Russian champion, Alexander Volkov.
"Our agreement with volkov was similar to the one with Chesnokov win or lose Alexander would coach me only during the U.S.
Open, because he has other jobs as well, like being the director of the men's Kremlin Cup," Safin said.
(Reuter)