Article

  • Safin leaving costly racket-smash legacy behind

    6/28/09 9:25 PM | Johan Lindahl
    Safin leaving costly racket-smash legacy behind Marat Safin left Wimbledon last week for the final time as a player, with his career-long trail of smashed rackets not many months from its natural conclusion.

    The personable - yet mercurial - Russian who retires at the end of the season takes the prize for destruction of tools, with his racket company Head surely ready for some relief after a decade or more of shipping in replacements.

    Safin reckons he's gone through nearly $150,000 in broken rackets, crashed and smashed in the heat of the moment on court. "Breaking all those rackets, it was worth it.

    "I'd guess I've smashed 700 in my career, maybe more. That's not so many. The rackets probably cost about $200 dollars each, so 700 rackets, not so much really".

    The $140,000 guess-timate comes in addition for nearly $100,000 in disciplinary fines for the two-time Grand Slam winner and former number one.

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Comments

- a-ha. i was suspicious marat would somehow leave it early this year. i first saw him in oz around the early millenium against a final with p. sampras and that final he won. quite brilliant and was like a great fresh hard breeze through our souls. i can't think why he becomes so agitated and angry to himself. he's a lovely enough guy. the rest shall do him good with a lot of air and looking after himself. he really is the most beautiful male tennis player with a fine sister as a suit...

steppo , 6/29/09 4:23 AM


roker safin....u rok...

jibi , 6/29/09 4:36 PM



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