Player Blog

[buurs]

Tursunov is terug!!!! =D> =D> =D>

So… After much debating I decided to start writing again because the week of Estoril has been the best week on tour for me. People were just too afraid to get on my bad side! They would say hello in the morning and let me take the best croissant at the breakfast bar. They would sign up with me to practice, and one 15-year-old kid even let me win against him on clay! So I thought about the pros and the cons and decided that to improve my ranking I owe it to myself to start writing again.

To be honest it’s kind of funny to see the evolution of the blog. You can find it everywhere nowadays. You have readers review blogs on Yahoo on topics ranging from whether Pluto is a planet or just a circular object made of cheese to “Paramount Pictures’ concerns about Tom Cruise’s recent misconduct on Oprah’s couch. Some tennis players have blogs on their web sites and I hear that soon George Bush is going to blog as well. It is very amusing to watch all of this considering, I, like, started the whole thing!

Another reason I’m resuming was just the sheer whining I had to put up with in the locker room. “Can you please write something about me?”, “Can you write something about Tommy?”, “Say something mean about Bobby! I don’t like him!”, “Johnny bageled me! Tell everyone he sucks!” - and so on and so forth. Thomas Johansson is calling me “Maestro”, “Blog King”, “The Chosen One”, and “Richard Pryor of Blogging” after he realized how difficult it is to blog on my level, and even Roger asked for blogging lessons for his own web site. He is trading 3 of his Grand Slam titles because he spent all of his money on some pastures for his cow, or something like that, so he just wants to trade instead of paying cash!

So as you see, I have plenty of reasons to do this. Plus, I promised some of the players to trash-talk some of the other guys so I can’t really back out now. In any case, I hope you enjoy this page! I will try to put something out at least once a month so be sure to stop by and check it out. Also you probably noticed that you can leave your comments on this site so feel free to leave one. Don’t worry! If it’s a negative one ATP will filter it for me so as far as I am concerned you will enjoy this site tremendously! ;-)

Take care, Dmitry

[Ad Wim]

En Dimitri beantwoordt nu e-mails van fans, erg grappig:

Responses from the BCR Open Romania (September 13, 2006)
1. Derek Mamour, Lisbon, Portugal
Privet Dmitry! I'd like to know what your last locker-room prank was. ;-)
Answer: Hi Derek! Love the name!
There has been too many pranks to name. I would have to update this daily. Last week I threw an apple at Grosjean at US Open. He deserved it though! Pulling out of doubles like that! In Toronto I hid Roger’s bag before the match! It actually worked! I got a set off the guy! You might also want to ask Big Poo (Philippoussis) if he has enough bananas in his bag. At the Open I put around forty bananas in his bag before his match.
Now that you mentioned it… It’s been a while! Got to find another prey this week! Mwuahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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2. Andrea Brown, Chapel Hill, USA
U are so cute and the six pack is, for lack of better words, DELICIOUS!! So my question is, could u please lift ur shirt up as much as possible when playing? Just pretend to wipe ur face or something. Thanks Boo.

Thank you Andrea! I’m actually quite pleased to see that someone FINALLY noticed them. Most guys think that only beer six-packs are delicious so I am not surprised that this comes from a girl.
I was a bit shy about it but now that I’m getting compliments I might have to start showing them a little more. Thus far I’ve come up with three options;
1. I should celebrate a well hit shot or a won point the way footballers do! Put a shirt over my head and run around with my arms flailing like a turkey in the rain.
2. I should do Chip’N’Dales thing on the court and have you girls put bills in my Speedo’s and slide a credit card through… aghm… aghm! Never mind!!!
3. Have a talk show based around me and my six pack. I could have guests show up and talk about MY six-pack, what it means to them and how it improved their lives.
You let me know what’s more acceptable for you. In any case, while I’m working on few ideas, the best way to catch a glimpse of “The Pack” is to tune in to Tennis Channel. I promise I’ll try to keep it PG!


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3. Miruna, Romania
Dmitry baby, would you consider yourself a romantic person? I love you

Miruna, baby! With a six pack like that who needs to be romantic?!


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4. Dave Graham, Sacramento, CA, USA
Hi Dmitry. Lately I've been reading Vince Spadea's book, “Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player”. In the book Vince passes himself off as quite a lady's man. At one point he even reels off a list of tips to help the "average guy" get more dates. He says that someday he may even write a whole book on the topic based on his experience. Like most people who read this sort of thing, one of my first thoughts was, "OK...if this guy's tips are so good, how have they worked for him? Show me the money!" Instead of just taking Vince's word that he's such a lady-killer, I thought I'd ask you, an insider, for some corroboration. Do you often see Vince walking around Flushing Meadows with a hot babe on each arm? Also, here is a related question: How successful do you have to be on the tour to be able to attract "tennis groupies" that rank 8 or better? Do you have to be in the Top 10, or is the Top 20 enough?

Dave!
1. You are putting me in an awkward position that feels… umm…awkward! I have to consider that at some point Vince might come out with “Break Point: Payback is here!” and I might end up in it. So to answer your question, yes Vince always has a hot babe on his arm. He just deflates her and leaves her in the locker before walking out onto the court!
2. You are aiming way to high! Groupies that are 8 or better have groupies of their own. However, if there happens to be a groupie who broke away from her flock and you are able to converse with her, remember! You are in Top 10! You just have to figure out what that Top 10 is. For example, if (hypothetically) I happen to stumble on a wandering 8, I do not tell her I’m #22 in the world which means I’m behind 21 people on a “potential prey list”. Oh no! Instead I will confuse her with a, “I’m a Top 5 Blogger!” line. If that fails, or for some reason is not true I move on to option #2, “I’m a Top 5 Blonde Blogger!” Work your way down until you finish in Top 5. The possibilities are endless! Just watch baseball highlights on ESPN. “The only left handed pitcher who writes with his right hand and likes Indian food to have three strike-outs in a row!” They sure know how to make a guy with a beer belly look like “The Best Athlete whose mom’s name is Betty and who has a red 71’ Corvette!”
Hope this helps out!



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6. Lauren Michelle, Louisville, KY USA
Hi Dmitry! I just wanted to say that I am so excited that you are going to blog again for us fans. I had such a great time reading the first one, even though I got some weird looks from the family when I would burst out laughing while at the computer. My question is what are the weirdest things that fans have ever said or done for you? I hope you have some good stories! Lauren.

Well Lauren, instead of answering your question and playing “broken phone” I will just copy a couple of questions that I received. Apparently a gentleman from England is in fact, mailing me from an alternative reality, while Matt from Stetson University is doing a study on relation of “Too much time on your hands vs. Easy access to internet.”

Brian O’Brien, London, England
Dear Mr. Tursunov, do you know what time it is here? I must be ill or perhaps I'm living in an alternative reality....like tour players. Do you think it's a good idea to have a racket in each hand? Backhands could be deleted, you and Roddick would be unbeatable, and Federer and Nadal and Gonzales and...never mind.

Matt Fitzgerald, Stetson University, United States
Are you a killer ping pong player?

Thanks guys!!!



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7. Vassili van der Mersch, Brussels, Belgium
Hey Dmitry, I'm a huge fan of yours. My brother is also called Dmitry (well, Dimitry actually) but he's a lot smarter than you are. I greatly enjoyed the end of your match against Nieminen at Wimbledon. I also like it when you kick Henman's butt in five sets and all the Brits start crying. My question is: How many WTA players have you dated so far? Many thanks and good blogging dude...

Hello Vassili! Thank you for the compliment on my IQ level. It is always pleasing to realize that you are not the smartest person in the world. To answer your question, I would surely give you a number but I have only learned to count to three so I’m afraid I can’t answer…



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8. Veronica Gonzalez, New York, NY
Good to have you back as the “Blogger Maestro”, and I wish more players would be as entertaining as you. Good one about Roger and his cows But since it says QUESTION here, let me ask you one that's been on my mind ever since I saw the photo: Are you really a good kisser?

Veronica! Let me give you couple of emails so you can ask those who were lucky enough to have that experience, directly! Hehe… On a more serious note, no I’m not a good kisser… I’m a GREAT kisser!!!


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9. Joe, Ohio
Hey Dmitry! I know you like techno/electronic music, and I was just wondering if you've ever mixed your own stuff? Also, who are some of your favorite music artists? Thanks and best of luck!!

I have mixed a few CDs. Of course they aren’t the same quality as the DJ’s that you buy at the store. Basically I use a program called “AtomixMP3” which is aimed at the beginners. It even includes a beat-match feature that allows you to just press the button and it will match the beats along with the speeds of both tracks. However, it is still challenging to me and I have realized that to be good at anything you need a lot of practice so I’m trying to do it as much as I can whenever I have the time.

I like a lot of artists because in this music genre there is a lot of one-hit wonders but there are few DJs that consistently churn out stuff that I like. Anything by ATB (not to be confused with ATP) and BT. Matthew Dekay’s mixes always turn out nice in my opinion. One of my favorite CDs is Global Underground 021 Moscow (mixed by Deep Dish)

The song that I really enjoy lately is – Aneela feat. Chori Chori (Ali Payami Remix) or (Pachanga Remix). Original is nice as well. There are too many to name though…


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AND THE TOP QUESTION IS:

10. Tara Rokey, Manhattan, Kansas, USA
Message: Boxers or briefs? PS. LOVE the blog!

Commando!

[buurs]

Roger Federer:

Konnichiwa,


It's very exciting to be here in Tokyo and I'm also very pleased to be writing the ATPtennis.com blog this week. I've read a few blogs during the year. I really enjoy them as they shed some light on what goes on behind the scenes on the ATP circuit and it’s a great way to communicate with the fans.

I've had an unbelievable time since arriving in Japan on Friday. I had one of my first practices on one of the outside courts of the Ariake Tennis Forest Park and many, many fans watched me. That was very special for me. They all had their cameras and their phones up in the air taking photos. It was like a sight I'd never seen before. People were running behind me on the way to practice, wanting photos, autographs, my rackets and even my clothes. I thought for a second that maybe I should practice naked. It was a great atmosphere and for the first time I felt what it must be like to be a rock star. I practiced with the No. 1 Japanese player Go Soeda, who is very nice and a very talented player.

Two months ago the tournament asked me if I would practice at 10AM on Centre Court on the first day of the tournament and I did not understand why but I decided it would be ok. Now I understand why. The tournament had promoted it as my first official practice in Japan and opened it to the public. It was great to see so many fans out there for an early morning practice.

On Saturday I had an incredible experience meeting with the Crown Prince of Japan, Prince Naruhito at one of the Imperial Palaces. I had been waiting for the moment for a long time and it was something that needed to be planned well in advance because of the protocol. We went to one of his guest palaces. He had two clay courts back there. I warmed up with him and I was surprised how well he played. Then I played with another junior as he took a rest and then I asked the Prince if he'd like to play some doubles. He was excited about that and we played a set together, which was a lot of fun and we won! I must admit that the Prince hit some fantastic winners and was a great partner.

Princess Masako and their beautiful daughter Aiko were also there and spent some time with my girlfriend Mirka and my agent Tony. After tennis we had a wonderful lunch and talked for over an hour at his tennis villa. Then we went for a walk around their picture-perfect gardens - in particular I remember they have a beautiful lake and trees - and had lunch at the court. It is one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen and to think that it is in the centre of Tokyo is quite amazing. It was a very enjoyable moment. You don't get to play tennis with royalty every day and I will never forget this experience.

It's very exciting to be here in Japan. It's been a while since I've been to a city or a country for the first time. I'm still feeling my way around, but the people are so polite and respectful here and I'm really happy I've made the trip. Mirka has played here five or six times so I knew what to expect but it’s been more enjoyable than I thought. I love travelling in Asia. I have been to Bangkok, Shanghai, Dubai, Doha, and I always wanted to come to Japan. It's a very interesting country with fascinating history and culture. It's very different from home and I wanted to see it.


The traffic hasn't been as bad as I had expected and Tokyo is a very clean city where the pace of life is not as hectic as I imagined. I was expecting Tokyo to be like New York or Rome. This is such a big city with 8 1/2 million people in the centre and 12 1/2 million in total that you'd think there would be people everywhere, but it seems very relaxed.

I love Japanese food a lot and I eat it anywhere I go as it seems to be the 'in' food. It's healthy food with a lot of rice and vegetables. Over the last few years I started to eat fish and meat, so I can enjoy sushi and sashimi as well. Saturday night I had dinner with Mr Morita, the chairman of the Japanese Tennis Association. We had shabu-shabu - it's like a broth where you put the meat in and it’s very much like the Swiss dish ‘Fondue Chinoise’.

The other night I played a joke on Mirka and put a lot of wasabi (the very strong green paste) underneath a piece of her sashimi…she still has fire coming out of her nose and has promised to get me back!

For breakfast I was introduced to the Japanese custom of drinking vinegar, which is supposed to clean your system. I quite enjoyed that.

I’m off to do my pre-tournament press conference now.

Sayonara and write to you tomorrow!

Roger

PS - In one of the photos above you will see that Mirka and I meet up with Monica Seles, Japanese tennis legend Kimiko Date and her husband, German racing driver Michael Krumm.

[Mr. T]

Respect om en zo te spelen en bovendien ook naast de baan zo als ambassadeur voor de tennissport op te treden. Way to go, Roger!

[Ad Wim]

Mooi om het doen en laten van The Legend mee te maken.

[buurs]

I am a bit late with my second blog. I still felt a little bit jet-lagged last night and this morning I slept until 11:30…I feel much better now.

Like probably everyone else, the first place where I go after getting up is the bathroom. This is quite an experience here in Japan as they have the best toilets in the world. You could sit on the toilet for hours! The seat is warm, there is a water spray…Toto, the makers of this special toilet seat, are geniuses. The toilet in my bathroom is like a space shuttle, there are so many buttons that I am always afraid to press the wrong one. I definitely want to buy one for my apartment!

Last night for dinner I had sushi in Ginza, one of the nicest neighbourhood in Tokyo. My favourite sushi is tuna but I cannot eat squid. They served me squid last night and that made me feel like wanting to become a vegetarian again! People maybe don’t know but I wasn’t eating either meat or fish until 10 years ago but now I eat everything. Mirka did not come to dinner last night so I brought her back some take away sushi. She was afraid to eat it as she thought ‘Captain Wasabi’ would hit again but I never play the same joke twice. And she hasn’t had her revenge yet, so I need to watch out…

Before dinner I had a reception in town as I was presented with the Baccarat Athlete of the Year award for 2006. The other two winners were Annabelle Bond, mountain climber, and the Japanese sports heroine Shizuka Arakawa who won a gold medal in figure skating at the Turin Winter Olympics this year. Annabelle climbed seven peaks including Mount Everest last year. Shizuka accomplished something that I have not done YET, an Olympic gold medal. That is my goal for Beijing 2008 …or London 2012!

I did quite a few interviews at the Baccarat event. What strikes me here is that the Japanese media are always so well prepared for the interviews. They must have read everything about me and they ask interesting and funny questions. I also did a photo shoot for the cover of the AERA magazine, which is like the Time or Newsweek in Japan. I like doing photo shoots, sometimes they are long, but I love interacting with the photo artists and see their preparation work.

I also went to a mall yesterday and stopped by one of the largest gaming rooms, they have thousands here in Tokyo and it was funny to see my Sega tennis game there. I was thinking of playing against the volley master (a.k.a. Tim Henman) for a second but then I had to go to the hotel for a work out session.

My driver here in Tokyo, Mr Iwaono, always wears a Swiss Tennis pin and I thought he did it for me but he actually was the driver of the Swiss Fed Cup team that played against Japan here at the Ariake Colosseum in April. He’s a very nice man who speaks fluent English. He has been the source of the best information on Tokyo.

Today I practiced from five to six before the Official Welcome Party of the AIG Japan Open. They put me to practice on court five away from the crowd but since there were so many fans there I moved to court seven so that they could be closer to me. At the end of the practice I invited one of the young kids in the crowd to join me on court for a short hit. The kid is only seven and turned out to be very talented. We played a few points from the baseline and then on the last point he hit a winning drop volley! His name is Kaito and maybe my agent Tony already has a contract ready for him to sign. You know what these agents from IMG are like...

I’m off to dinner with Tim Henman and Stefan Koubek at the teppanyaki. Tim is paying tonight so I will make a double order of Kobe beef!!!

It is back to business for me tomorrow. I am playing the fourth match at the Ariake Colosseum. I will blog again after that.

Sayonara

R

[Mr. T]

Roger kan ook nog eens prima schrijven. Goed stuk!

[buurs]

Konnichiwa

Last night we had the sponsor reception and welcome party at the official hotel here in Tokyo. Together with other players I went on stage to break a barrel of sake, which is supposed to bring good luck. I thought of giving it such a hard wack that I would destroy the barrel but at the very last moment I thought to myself ‘Roger maybe you shouldn’t be doing this’ and I behaved appropriately by giving it the right force.

After the party I went for dinner with Tim Henman and Stefan Koubek who are two of my friends on the tour. We went to a teppanyaki restaurant where they cook in front of you. Tim had a funny idea and decided to exchange his chopsticks with the chef’s utensils and took over from him. Actually he was pretty good, I mean he’s a father after all, but I got too worried about my beef and I requested a change of chef. The dinner was delicious.

I got back to the room, went to sleep and already got into match rhythm. I woke up, went for breakfast with Mirka and Tony, got my stuff ready, just making sure that I have enough shirts, shoes, etc. This time I actually had a problem with my rackets. Last night I was rushing so bad to get to the player welcome party after my practice that I forgot to get my rackets strung for today’s match. But the tournament helped out to get the rackets from the hotel to the tennis courts before me so they could be ready. I was glad that everything worked out in the end.

I got the stadium and when I walked out on Centre Court for my first match I felt the place buzzing. There were a lot of fans out there today and that made me feel really happy and excited to play. It went very well for a first match as I didn’t know my opponent at all before going on court and that always makes it pretty difficult. As you know I won in two tough tiebreak sets. After the match I had to do press, doping test, stretch and massage, the usual looooong routine.

After the match I always like to get in touch with friends and family but here in Japan my ‘stone age’ mobile phone doesn’t work. They are so advanced here with the modern technologies that I really need to try and get the latest stuff from here before I go back.

I will be funnier again tomorrow as I am quite tired from the match and Dmitry is looking over my shoulder and making me very nervous…

Sayonara

Rog

[Ad Wim]

Roger kan ook nog eens prima schrijven. Goed stuk!

Hij schrijft inderdaad best leuk, maar het blijft een drol. In de blogs van Safin en Tursunov viel meer te beleven.
Wel geinig om te weten te komen dat Koubek een goede vriend is. Die komt ie de laatste tijd niet zoveel meer tegen :razz:

[Mr. T]

Een drol omdat hij mr. perfect is - en niet te vergeten uit Zwitserland komt - en daarom een beetje saai is?

[Ad Wim]

Inderdaad, ik vind hetm wat saai. Bovendien maakt hij flauwe grapjes. Het is een beetje een nerd, maar wel een toffe nerd en een ware ambassadeur voor het tennis.

[buurs]

Konnichiwa

I am happy to be back online writing to all of you after a not so funny experience last night...

But let's start with dinner, which was very good as usual. Together with Mirka and two friends we went back to the shabu-shabu restaurant where we had dinner with Mr Morita the other night. Everything went fine we had a very nice and relaxing evening.

The trouble started when I woke up in the middle of the night, I must have had a nightmare. I jumped out of bed and stood up screaming in a state of shock, I did not know where I was and I ran back and hit the corner of the bed which is solid wood and sharp. Luckily Mirka was there, she woke up because of all the noise that I made, turned on the light on, grabbed me and told me to relax. Apparently I screamed out loud the same thing as I said on court against Tursunov in Toronto (a four letter word that someone might associate with doing on a Toto toilet). I have a big bruise on my tibia now. I don't know what would have happened if she hadn't been there. It was pretty scary for a moment, it's never happened to me before and hope it will never happen again. Mirka thinks I have been playing too much tennis this year and that is why it might have happened, but I think it might have been the sake bomber I had during the shabu-shabu dinner.

Once I calmed down and went back to bed I realized I was in pain and that maybe I should ice my leg. But it was 4AM and I was too tired...I went back to sleep then woke up again (no drama this time...) and had my normal game day breakfast: vinegar shot, orange juice, cappuccino, water, waffles with raspberry syrup, passion fruit and corn flakes with milk. I came to the site around 11AM as I was scheduled third match on Centre Court but I had to wait a long time as both women's matches before mine went to the three sets...I was really impatient to go on court. I was actually lucky to be scheduled on Centre Court as they have a roof here. It's been raining since this morning and a lot of other players are hanging around in the locker room waiting for their match. We're having some fun in the locker room listening to music, gossiping and checking out some funny stuff on the internet. By the way, I made an improvement from the other day as this time I did not forget to leave my rackets to get strung.

I have been online the last couple of days checking the fans' reaction to my blog and I'm happy to see that it's been positive. I am doing this for my fans and it's good that they are enjoying it. We have about 85,000 registered users on RogerFederer.com and would like to reach the 100,000 bar before the end of the year. Please sign up! They have also told me that my blog has had 200,000 hits on ATPtennis.com. That's impressive! Keep reading my blog.

I have also been busy this week selecting the photos for my 2007 calendar. It will be ready very soon. No, it is not a swimsuit calendar, but we will have a broad range of both on court and off court photos and I hope it will make a great Christmas gift. More importantly it will be for a good cause as all proceeds from sales will go to my foundation.

The hotel where I stay in Tokyo is excellent. The hotel standards in Japan seem to be very high. They pay a lot of attention to details here and besides the space ship I sit on in the morning, I particularly like the wood (unless you kick the sharp edge with your tibia...) and stone combination, which gives a very warm atmosphere. I am interested in interior designing and have been impressed by what we have seen in Japan. It's given us a lot of ideas for our place.

Today's match against Wesley Moodie went easier than I expected, especially since he won this event last year and also because of the long wait to go on court. However, after his first service game where he hit three bombs (meaning aces) in a row, I got a little worried that it was going to be a long day. However, I played really well, there were even more spectators today, the stadium was packed and it was a fantastic atmosphere with the roof closed. I look forward to maintaining this standard for the rest of the tournament and can't tell you enough how special the reception from the Japanese fans has been....I love playing here.

Off to dinner now where I can guarantee you I will not have another shot of sake!

Talk with you again tomorrow,

Sayonara

Rog

[buurs]

Konnichiwa

Last night we went to dinner at a nice French restaurant in the hotel, but I only had a little white wine, no Sake. Mirka and I had the tasting menu which was excellent, it was good to change the food up a little bit, but I am definitely going Japanese again tonight.

As many of you know, in Japan they call their currency YEN. Maybe I was a bit tired last night but when the waiter brought the check after dinner and it said 17,000 I freaked for a second. I thought how was it possible that my dinner cost $17,000....did I order the most expensive glass of wine in the world? Did I eat some rare delicacy in the tasting menu? Then I realized the price was in Yen and I relaxed.

I had to get up early again this morning as I was scheduled third match from 9am. Many of you might know that I am not an early riser. If I had my way, I could definitely sleep all day.

Because of the rain yesterday the tournament had to move some matches to this morning, which meant that play started at 9am. Last night the last match finished at 3.24am, which is an all-time record for lateness for a singles match, and to be honest I was very happy to be into my third hour of sleep at that point.

We left the hotel and drove over to the tennis centre in pouring rain and strong winds because we have this typhoon hanging over Tokyo at the moment. So there was obviously no chance to play outside, which meant that there was no chance to warm up on the outside courts, this makes it a bit tricky to prepare for a match. That's why we had a longer warm up before the game today, normally we get five minutes to warm-up, but today we had 10 minutes which we both agreed on before the match started.

The match itself was played at a very high-standard, the serving from both sides I thought was amazing. I think I got a little bit lucky in the second set to get the break to take it 7-5 and then take it to the third. Having to play a tie-break in the final set was an obvious result because of our great serving [and poor returning ].

Every day it seems to get more special playing inside the Ariake Colosseum. It was more obvious playing today against a Japanese player but the fans remained very fair, which I always think is great and I am looking forward to tomorrow's match after today's hard fought battle.

Thanks to everyone for being worried about my leg. It's still swollen and there is a little cut, but you know tough guys don't cry. Yesterday I told you I thought I had the dream because of the Sake bomber, but I seriously doubt it was the Sake bomber, I am pretty sure now after reconsidering that it was because of Mirka keeping me on my toes trying to seek her revenge on Captain Wasabi. I have heard rumblings of many players (and fans) giving Mirka ideas of how to pay me back. I realize that no matter what happens in the remaining matches, I will be leaving Japan soon, so Captain Wasabi has put his defences on high alert and I will now pay more attention to what I eat. One of the fans tipped me off that perhaps she was going to try and mix a lot of wasabi into a scoop of green tea ice cream...I will now make her taste it first if we order it for dessert.

Apparently there was a famous Japanese samurai called Benke who killed a lot of warriors during his battles. They say that his downfall was a weakness in his shin. Hopefully, my shin will continue to get better and not pose a problem for the remainder of the event. Since I have been in Tokyo, I have been looking to buy a rare Samurai sword to take home with me as I really think they are cool and I have always been intrigued by the Samurais. But I don't think that they will let me carry it on to the plane. Actually I am not even sure they will let me through customs with it so I will probably wait until another trip.

Today I scared Sanji Arisawa, the tournament director, for the second time. Not only did I win 7-6 in the third in almost losing to Suzuki, after my match while I was getting stretched in the training room, Sanji came in and just as he walked in, I yelled out "ouch my back" and he said "good try you cant scare me twice in one day".

As you probably noticed, I am playing again with a collared-shirt, which I am happy about, as it's nice to change it up once in a while. I had been wearing t-shirts for some time but now but both Nike and I thought we should change it up a bit. I have had many fans write me about a t-shirt I wore during practice the other day. It was blue t-shirt Nike made for the US Open and they borrowed the theme of James Bond and instead of the "Man with the Golden Gun", they wrote that "Roger Federer is the Man with the Golden Racquet." You can see my shadow and the text in the shirt. Nike made it in different colours and I think it looks really great. I have always been a James Bond junkie....tell me how cool that guy is????

I am very psyched as next Friday I will be flying to Barcelona before the Madrid tournament to film a Nike commercial. Like a true James Bond mission, I can't tell you the theme of the commercial as it is top secret, but it will feature a few Nike athletes in a campaign that will be exclusive to the Asia-Pacific region, so all my fans in Japan and throughout Asia should get a chance to see it at the beginning of 2007.

Tomorrow I am playing my semi-final and I will write again after my match.

Sayonara

RF

[Ad Wim]

Jippie, Marat blogt weer




Monday, October 9, 2006

Hello everyone,

It is my duty this week to write the blog from the Kremlin Cup in Moscow and I will try to do my best to make it work and be published on ATPtennis.com. Since I am not an internet type of guy and if I wrote it myself it would take me a few days to finish one page, the person who will write it for me is Nicola Arzani of the ATP. In case you don’t like it you can blame him.

I now live in Monte Carlo but Moscow is my hometown and in my opinion it is the most incredible and most improved city in the entire world. I have not been to every city in the world, but from what I have seen, Moscow is the best. Of course I have a lot of friends here, I grew up here, so every time I come back here I try to enjoy as much as I can. It is sometimes difficult for me to combine work and pleasure but this is a week of work only for me…I am happy to be in Moscow and play the Kremlin Cup but I need to make a lot of sacrifices because I want to do well this week. So I will not be going out, no late dinners, everything will be around work this week. But I will make up for it once the season is finished after the Davis Cup final again here in Moscow in December…

I got to Moscow after a long and difficult trip. I was here for the Davis Cup semifinals against the United States in September, then I left to play ATP events in Bangkok and Metz. After losing in Metz, I flew back to Moscow but I missed the connection in Frankfurt and I arrived late. Nobody enjoyed that trip. When I got into town, I met with friends for dinner so that they could update me on life in Moscow without me. We went to a Japanese restaurant. I went back to my apartment pretty exhausted and slept for 12 hours.

When I got up I had corn flakes and coffee, I had no energy to cook anything. That’s the sad part of being single; nobody cooks for you, washes the dishes or does the laundry. So I never eat at home. My parents live not too far from me so they kindly do my laundry.

On Saturday I hit with (Nikolay) Davydenko, but after 45 minutes I had broken two racquets so I left the court as I had none left. It was a short day at the office…

I met again with friends for dinner and we went to a different Japanese restaurant and then we had coffee in the centre near Hermitage Park, where they have a club, a couple of restaurants and an old wooden house where they have a nice place where you can drink tea or coffee (but my friends preferred to smoke the water pipe…) I was pretty tempted to go to the nightclub for a drink but I stayed strong and went back home like a good boy. I was very proud of myself.

Sunday I had the same breakfast by myself and then had one more coffee at the Olympic Stadium and some blinis (Russian pancakes) with sour cream and jam. I ate about 10, as I was afraid that there would be none after my practice!

I hit for one hour with (Teimuraz) Gabashvili who is a very nice guy, pretty crazy and funny. He’s just great; you just don’t meet many people like him. I did not break any racquet this time

On my way back I wanted to stop at the Bania (Russian bath house) with Alexander Volkov who is helping me but then Gabashvili called because he was supposed to hit with (Dmitry) Tursunov but he had to cancel so he wanted Volkov to take his place. So I had to be the driver and drop Alexander back at the Olympic Stadium. Thanks to Gabashvili I did not get to go to the Bania, he took away Volkov and I was depressed until after the doubles today. I am actually more depressed now because we lost the doubles! All this because of Gabashvili.

Last night I still had to face the situation that I was left without Volkov so I went out to dinner. That was also to cheer up my friend (Yuri) Schukin who had lost in the qualifying. I have known Yuri since we were kids. We went with (former ATP player Denis) Golovanov and his wife, who is pregnant, and also another former player (Emin) Agaev who has moved to Moscow and another friend, Oleg. We went to an Uzbek restaurant. We sat next to two groups who were very loud. One was Dutch and Portuguese people. They were so loud! And they drank so much, I was not there when they got the bill and I am sure they had a bad surprise. Probably they did not know the conversion from the roubles to dollars. I had never seen so many corks and so many trays on a restaurant table. The more wine they drank the louder they became.

Then some Uzbek dancers came along and it just got even louder. Those guys were enjoying themselves so much, especially because their wives were not around. When the dancers finished and left, the Dutch-Portuguese group wanted to have them back and of course the restaurant in order to please the clients, brought the dancers back. I must say they were pretty hot (the dancers, not the clients!) They were happy and discussed more business after their 20th bottle of wine. Then they discussed which country was better, Portugal or Holland and one Dutch guy came to our table to offer us a Dutch cigar. I had never heard of a Dutch cigar before and I decided not to try it as I do not want to fail the doping test!

We left the happy group at the Uzbek restaurant. Their company must have a big budget, they were still drinking and eating when we left. I am pretty sure I know where they finished their evening but I will keep that secret and take it with me to the grave.

That’s it from me today. If you are bored and read this blog and you have more time to spare, you can visit my web site MaratSafin.com

Speak to you tomorrow,

Marat

[centre court]

Mooi stuk. 2 rackets gesloopt tijdens training met Davy. :8:

en dan die luidruchtige Hollanders.

[Ad Wim]

Mooi ook dat hij zich echt heel hard moet inhouden om niet de hele week te gaan zuipen in Moskou.

[_Tampie]

Hij heeft het niet over zuipen gehad hoor.
Al heb ik wel het sterke vermoeden dat hij wel een wodkaatje lust.

[centre court]

Hij wil wel echt vlammen hier als je 'm moet geloven. Jammer dat iedereen 'm heeft. :8:

[centre court]

Devilder pakt Vinci sowieso hoor.

p.s. verkeerd topic?! :8:

[Ad Wim]

Hij heeft het niet over zuipen gehad hoor.
Al heb ik wel het sterke vermoeden dat hij wel een wodkaatje lust.

Wat is dit dan?

I was pretty tempted to go to the nightclub for a drink but I stayed strong and went back home like a good boy. I was very proud of myself.

[Ad Wim]

Hi is weer erg vermakelijk, al was hij gisteren leuker:


Hello everyone

Somewhere in the Caribbean Islands, it is 30 degrees, sunny, people are lying in the sun maybe drinking a caipirinha…this was my first thought of the day when I woke up. Autumn has finally arrived in paradise (Moscow) and it was grey and rainy this morning.

I woke up at 11:30, which is a pretty good hour. I think I have a nice job because I can wake up when I want.

One of my managers arrived in town last night and we were supposed to have dinner together with a friend of mine who is a soccer player. He actually doesn’t play much but I still like him. Allon, my manager, could not come in the end because he was tired and probably went to the Swedish Embassy. We had a good dinner last night at a place called Galleria.

This morning I picked up Allon and we had brunch together next to my place. We had some good food and coffee and talked the same b------t as always. It was a warm feeling inside the nice cafeteria even if it was wet outside.

There was so much traffic as always today in Moscow. I think that 90% of the people do not know where they are driving or the reason. How can this country function like that? There is always traffic. Who is working? It is just like in Italy, the most amazing country apart from Russia. People never work there, they are always eating or fixing their hair. But I guess the most talented people do not need to work and I think that the Italians are the most talented people in the world apart from the Russians.

After brunch I showed Allon my apartment in Moscow, which will probably never be ready. Maybe my grandchildren will be the ones who will see it ready. Then we drove to the courts where we arrived two hours before practice. I had a couple of coffees with my parents and my sister and my mum told me all the inside family information. I felt very much like Tony Soprano and I liked it pretty much.

I practiced looking at the scoreboard and saw my sister losing her match. Then I had some pasta and talked more with my parents and friends and gave a lecture on life to Pepo Clavet, who is from a village called Madrid and has arrived to the big city life of Moscow. He seems a little bit lost so I gave him some tips on how to enjoy life at 60 (his current age) in Moscow. I had a laugh with Verdasco who travels with all his family gang to support him because he does not have enough attention with all the women…Pepo, who is Verdasco’s coach, is a nice guy and if he reads this blog, I really like him. He promised to show me around Madrid so I have to be nice to him from now on.

After that I went into the locker room to get ready for my opening match at the Kremlin Cup. The match before me was Kirilenko-Schiavone and after the first set I taped my feet, warmed up, Sasha Volkov started to put some paranoia in my head (now play, behave, all this b------t) so I made him feel useful and I listened to all that.

Maria lost serve at 5-4 in the second set and I ended up staying in the locker room for two more hours. I started to hate it, I knew it would end 7-6 in the third and of course I was right. Some junior players were in the locker room and we talked non-sense and I really felt my age, which is 14 years old.

The match finally ended and I went on court with my legs shaking, my hands shaking and my body not listening to me. I guess it is just like all players before a match so that we feel we are ready for the match.

The match went pretty well, in the first set Mahut broke himself and I won 6-3. In the second set I saw three girls holding up a sign “Marat Blog Us” so I put them in the blog! Thanks for reading me and I hope you are not the only ones. In the middle of the second set I prayed “Mahut please break yourself again” and he must have listened to me. He did it again. Everyone was happy, Safin through to the second round. I feel very relieved.

After the match Nicola Arzani came to the court (he makes me write this blog so he will have to suffer with me mentioning his name) and told me to do the press. It went smoothly, I said a couple of stupid jokes and felt like a clown. Everybody wished me luck for the next round.

We had a pretty good crowd for a first round. After the match I took a shower and went on the massage table from where I am dictating this blog.

I hope it will not be too boring.

Good night and talk to you tomorrow.

Thanks for reading me

Marat

[Ad Wim]

Second day of autumn in paradise. No thoughts, no stress, no problem, all good signs for a happy day at the office.

Last night my father called me at around 1am and asked me to use one of my cars to take my grandfather to a medical check this morning. Since I am a good son, I told him to come to the apartment in the morning and pick up the keys. When he arrived, I gave him some laundry as a present for my mum…

For some reason, after a certain age our lovable parents enjoy doing things for their kids, like laundry, looking after your flat when you are not around. They are just happy to do anything, anytime for their kids. But when you are young, you have to do all these things, laundry, doing the dishes, cleaning the apartment and all the c—p you hate doing, when the only thing you want to do is go out, hang out with your friends and do whatever is on your mind. Every age has its good parts and bad parts, it is important that you enjoy both of them.

This morning my father came to my flat; we went to the garage so that he could pick up the car and we wished each other a good day. I had lunch with my manager Allon. Next to us there was a table with three guys. One of them was talking on the phone trying to make his point. He wanted money from the other guy on the phone but the other guy did not want to pay him for his services. He kept saying he had done everything for the service he was asked to do and needed to be paid. He thought they were going to have a meeting, that’s why he probably brought the other two guys, but the other person did not show up…

After lunch I came to the courts, nothing special, same routine for a day off, no stress, no match, so short day at the office. I hit a few balls, went to the gym and pretended to do something there, took a shower, had lunch and now Nicola is writing. I have the rest of the day free. My plan after giving the story to him is going home, have a couple of meetings, go for dinner and then to finish the day on a good note, have tea with my friends. After that I will slowly start thinking about the next match and another day to enjoy.

Good night everybody, I wish you all sweet dreams and no nightmares. If you’re not alone I wish that the person next to you loves you very much and hopefully for you, you feel the same for the other person, otherwise you will have a tough time falling asleep.

Talk to you tomorrow my friends.

Marat

[Ad Wim]

En eerlijkheid gebiedt te zeggen dat deze van Bjorkman ook wel leuk is:

Hi there!


I lost to Robin Soderling in the second round of Stockholm Open today, 6-0, 6-2. The evil virus-infection that Petra and Max have been carrying for a while now has really jumped on me too. I had no energy at all. But to be honest that probably didn’t have an impact on winning or loosing, but maybe if I had felt better it would have given me a few more games at least.

This evening, two of the Swedish fans that have supported us Swedish players in Melbourne and the Australian Open during the years (they are both loyal and loud!), nicknamed “Candle” and “Pippi”, came to visit at our hotel, and handed over a bottle of champagne and a few Davidoff cigars. The reason was, that we made a bet some time ago, about which of our favourite football teams, their AIK or my Hammarby, both from Stockholm, would win the derbys between them this season. Needless to say, Hammarby won them both… Almost an embarrassingly easy way to earn the glory, and a zip of champagne… They are both great guys, just not so clever when it comes to football…

Speaking of football. I just watched the Swedish national team win their fourth straight victory in the qualification for the European Championships 2008, 2-1 away against Iceland. Despite injuries and internal trouble, they have found the form that has made them so successful since the late 90s - only three losses in the qualifications for the European and World Championships since 1998 for example. Great to see that the team spirit is back.

And speaking of spirit… I think I have to consider employing my son Max as my mentor! After my poor performance today, he told me: “Dad, it’s okay. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. I do that too!”

Max really loves tennis. They have mini tennis courts for the kids at Stockholm Open. Yesterday he played there for almost two hours, the queues were starting to build up behind him, but he just didn’t want to stop… He was still charged up when we came back to the hotel, and it took some time to get him to sleep. With the benefit that we all slept in, until 8.30 this morning…

John McEnroe and I had a seminar with the sponsors and the business elite at lunchtime today. I really like that kind of gathering; they are both interesting and entertaining, and they always broaden your horizons a little bit.

At the seminar, McEnroe said, jokingly, that he is worried that I will be a little bit too kind against my good friends Joachim “Pim-Pim” Johansson and Thomas Johansson in the doubles tomorrow. He is here to win, he wants to show why he is considered to be a legend! The moderator asked him if the mix between a “Mr Nice Guy-on the court” and a “Mr Not So Nice Guy-on the court” makes the perfect balance, and from what I could hear, John agreed.

Our doubles match tomorrow is sold out! It’s even impossible to get tickets on the black market! It would be such a fantastic feeling if we could show our best side and win.

When we came back from the tennis tonight, Max said: “What a nice house we have," about the hotel. What else can you do but agree…

Another late night, another room service dinner.

Alright, nighty-nighty, talk to you tomorrow (and if you can’t sleep, visit my web site jonasbjorkman.com...)


Jonas

[centre court]

Nalbi Blog! Niet echt spraakmakend. Hij had er verdomme gister al uit moeten liggen. #-o

Well, here I am at 1.30 in the morning dictating my first blog. I’m in the car on the way back to the hotel after winning my first match against Julien Benneteau. I was down 2-5 in the third set but won it 7-5 in the third. It was a very important win as I try to qualify for Tennis Masters Cup.

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It will still be a while before I get to sleep, so I may have to take a short nap in the car when I finish the blog! When I get back I’ll get something to eat and have a massage. It’s good that I can sleep late in the morning. I just have doubles to play.

Because I knew I was playing late today I woke up late… too late to have breakfast! I stayed in the room and spent a bit of time on the computer, checking some email. I will stay in touch with friends with email but I always speak to my mother on the phone. My mother doesn’t check email. I normally speak with her every two or three days and I will call her later. Last Sunday was mother’s days in Argentina so I called her for that (but I didn’t send any flowers; she has to wait till I come home!). But she had a lot of other family members come to visit her.

It was raining so heavily today and the traffic was terrible, so I decided to have lunch in the hotel around 1.30. Went back to the room around 3 or 3.30 to fix my things, my bag and match clothing. I got a car earlier than I normally would at 4.15 because the driver told me it was taking two hours to get to the site and that I should come early. In the end we got there in about 50-55 minutes.

When I got there first player I met was Calleri, who was just leaving the site. I told him that I tried to reach him last night but he didn’t answer. I wanted to take some movies from his room but he didn't call me back. He said he didn’t remember my number! He’s got a terrible memory!

So next time I may have to use a service provided by the tournament. They allow the players to take DVDs home overnight and we can bring them back the next day. It’s too late tonight to watch one! But maybe I’ll get one tomorrow to watch in the car on the long drive.

I will talk to you again tomorrow after my doubles.

Thanks for reading,

David

[Ad Wim]

Robredo doet het deze week, dit is wel een grappige passage:

anyway i have to tell you guys to dont show up in the lobby of the hotel often, because there are a few players (i will not say names to protect their reputation) that plays with playstation at pro evoution every single day close to my room.... i can assure that they scream like crazy and they are playing with a big bet: the loser team has to go in the reception only with underwear and make a few turns over a fountain while the winner team just scream to ensure that more people will see that!!!!!

Ben benieuwd wie dat zijn.

[buurs]

:lol:

[buurs]

:lol: