Safin eyes long-term improvement after knee injury

CINCINNATI: Russian Marat Safin believes it will take him a long time to get back to his best following a long-standing knee injury.

The former world No 1 lost 6-3 7-6 to German Nicolas Kiefer in the Cincinnati Masters first round on Monday and has only just regained full fitness after a year and half battling with knee problems.

"Basically what happened is the knee injury destroyed my game," Safin, the winner of two grand-slam titles, told reporters.

"It took me away for such a long time, I had to start to make many different movements on the court to protect my left knee. Basically, I ended up with a game I never played before.

"So now I have to change everything back to older memories. It takes quite a few months to be able to find your game back, and that's why I have a new coach (Hernan Gumy).

"He looked at me and said: 'listen, this is not the way you used to play. I guess it's because of that, that, and that. It will take a couple months to get used to it and then you will see the difference'."

Safin said he was not too concerned about his form.

"I don't really care about the results right now," he said. "Doesn't matter if you are 24 or 35, it's the same thing. I'm aiming to be in the top 20. If it's not this year it's going to happen next year. If not next year, there's many years to come."

Safin will head to Miami to prepare for the US Open, which begins on August 27, but played down his chances at the event he won in 2000.

"I am not putting too much pressure on myself," he said. "It's really not going to happen, anything great, this year. I don't have any expectations. If everything goes well, I start to get the confidence and then maybe if I get to the second week, I can be dangerous."

Safin said he still enjoyed playing tennis.

"Of course, otherwise I would not be here," he said. "I would be somewhere in the south of France, on the beach, or on a yacht."

Agencies

(China Daily 08/15/2007 page23)