Help
12/9/11 5:53 PM | Johan Lindahl
Restless Marat Safin may have found something larger than tennis to occupy his time, with the retired ex-No. 1 earning election to the Russian parliament as a deputy in local elections.
Safin, 31, will join the Duma as a member of Vladimir Putin's currently unpopular United Russia party, which won controversial elections in recent days. Safin, the clown prince of the courts who quit the game in 2009 in hopes of finding a new life, has done just that with his election from a precinct 450 kilometres from his home in Moscow.
"My life has been changing," Safin told the ATP website. "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."
Clearly bored with the tennis life in his final seasons, Safin never looked back, spending his new non-tennis life with a job on the Olympic committee as well as getting a desk at the tennis federation. He also dabbled in the senior game, for which he barely qualified due to his young age.
"I could go and make commercials left and right and pretend like I am a celebrity, but that is not me," he said. "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."
Safin admitted that in politics, it's a brand new game for him. "I'm in completely new shoes," he said. "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."
Find the latest tennis odds at Unibet.com
Tell a friend »
A big apology to anyone who tried to log in at about 1:30 GMT. Tennistalk was hacked and for about a half hour, everyone who attempted to log in got the error message "you are banned from this site".
Thanks for your patience, and again, apologies for any inconvenience.
cherylmurray , 12/14/11 4:06 PM
Scan QR code to access Unibet mobile.
Bet on Sports wherever you are and whenever you like, with Unibet's quick and simple mobile client you can place bets, check results and see live odds.
For more info about QR codes & scanners click here.
Contact us
/ About us
/ Cookies
/ Recommended links
/ Advertise
/ Sitemap
Tennistalk v1.5.0
Disclaimer © 2001-2012, Moneytainment Media Ltd - All rights reserved
Seems to me that Safin has a new found maturity and commitment. Hope this works for him.
Maya , 12/10/11 12:53 AM