Will Marat Safin go down as the biggest waste of potential in tennis history?

Question

It's truly pathetic and sad to watch Safin nowadays. The depths to which he's sunken to is very painful to bear. A few years ago, he may have been amongst the elite, touted as a future multiple grand slam champion and a true rival to Roger Federer, but now he's not even a shadow of a shadow of his former self. One first round loss after another to no-name bums that will never achieve anything. Tournaments don't even give him wild cards anymore because he loses in the first round so often. Now he has to go through qualifiers just to get into main events. What's next? Challengers?! If he starts losing to those guys then he'll REALLY hit an all time low. How could he let himself degrade so much?

Answer 1

If you are obsorvent enough you will discover Safin is the only person on tour who wear's his emotions on his sleves to the extent that he does. His coachs urge him to change but he's just to stubborn. This one quality is so detrimental to a person's game, for him to make it as far as he did with it shows the talent inside him. He beat Federer in a grand slam, who  never has off day's. If he was willing to change and threw out his stubborness he'd be without a doubt top ten. It's to bad almost sad really, every single commentator will point out this one flaw, yet he decides to waste all that talent that could turn him into the champion. i fully agree that he is the biggest waste of potential.

Answer 2

Perhaps, along with Mark Philoppoussis, Marcelo Rios, and Richard Gasquet.  At least Safin has his two slam titles, which will guarantee his place in the Hall of Fame.

Answer 3

If he keeps playing the way he does and not get his head back into his game he would be the biggest waste of pure talent to ever play pro tennis. Marat is so talented, but yet he's playing like he just doesnt care anymore, like he's playing for paychecks to add to his fortune. The guy beat Pete Sampras in a grandslam final, it's not like he doesn't know what it takes to win the big game. Marat is just having confidence issues right now, and something seems to be distracting him because he has to qualify to play in tournaments, if I were him I'd be ashamed of myself right now and would be working my butt off to get my game back on track. Maybe he'll wake up someday, and we'll get back the real Marat, but right now the one were watching is almost sickening to bear.

Answer 4

Without a doubt. When he beat the legendary Pete Sampras in the finals of the 2000 US Open, everyone (even Pistol Pete himself) thought that Safin would be the future of tennis... then he went sleepy time. When he beat Hewitt and Federer in the last two rounds to win the 2005 Australian Open, people thought maybe, just maybe, he'd live up to his potential. Again, it was not to be. It's a testament to his talent that someone that un-dedicated to his sport could win two Majors and reach #1. Again, you are 100% right. He is, beyond any doubt, far and away the biggest waste of potential in (at least) recent tennis history. How sad...

Answer 5

To be fair, Marat has had several injuries that have affected him much more than people pay attention to.  Just do some research.

As a recreational player dealing with nagging injuries, I can appreciate how debilitating it can be.  Until it happened to me, I never appreciated the psychological impact.  You can look like you're playing well, but be compensating in some way for the injury, or look like you lost due to errors, but they can just come from issues with movement that others won't detect.  The fact that Marat is already a bit vulnerable psychologically, probably makes the impact more significant for him.

That being said, he has NOT lived up to his potential, but there have been others for sure who are probably more significant.  Amelie Mauresmo, Anastasia Myskina (where the heck did she go after winning a French?!?   At least Marat came back 5 yrs after his 1st grand slam and did it again, never dropping off the computer...), Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio, Kim Clijsters (why only 1 slam!?!?!)...