Marat Safin, politician and tennis player
Marat Safin is a Russian tennis player, Honored Master of Sports of Russia, former first racket of the world in singles. Actually, he was a Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (2011-2017). You know, he is a winner of two Grand Slam singles titles (US Open-2000, Australian Open-2005), two-time winner of the Davis Cup (2002, 2006), winner of 17 ATP tournaments (15 of them – in singles). His younger sister, Dinara Safina, is a professional tennis player and a silver medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. To tell the truth, they are the first brother-sister tandem in tennis history to both achieve No. 1 rankings.
In addition, Marat is a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame since 2016.
Handsome boy was born on January 27, 1980 in Moscow, USSR. His mother, ten years before the birth of her son, was one of the most successful tennis players of the Soviet Union. Later she became a coach. Little Marat wanted to play football and wasn’t fond of tennis. Although, he played fine even in the early stages of his career.
When the boy was six years old, his mother became his coach. Soon she made him one of the top three tennis players among all athletes of his age in the USSR. Later he was even sent to the tennis academy in Cincinnati, USA, together with Anna Kournikova. The children showed their talents differently while studying at the American Academy. As a result, Anya managed to stay in the States, and Marat, who did not show outstanding results, returned home.
Then the young athlete was given a special grant from a Swiss bank. As a result, in 1994, Safin began to train abroad again.
In 1997, the athlete went to the tennis tournament in Espino. In fact, this performance can be considered the beginning of his professional sports career.
So, in 1998, at the beginning of the season, he was on the 204th place in the international rating. And by the end of the season he made an impressive jump to the 48th place. Soon he was considered one of the most outstanding young athletes of the USSR and the world.
By the beginning of the 21st century, Marat had become one of the most successful and famous tennis players on our planet. At the age of 25, the athlete defeated Pete Sampras at the US Open and received the status of the first racket of the world.
Besides, he became the first Russian man to reach the semi-finals of Wimbledon at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships.
In 2009 the tennis player decided to finish his sports career. You know, he became vice-president of the Tennis Federation of Russia and a member of the Russian Olympic Committee.
By the way, he speaks Russian, Spanish, English, Italian and Tatar.
Personal life
Safin was not married, but he had a close relationship with a number of stars of cinema, theater and show business.
Valeria Jakubovskaya (who was also the ninth wife of General Dmitry Jakubowski) gave birth to their daughter Eva.
His first serious romantic relationship was in Spain. Spanish top model Silvia Torrens-Valero attended all of his training and tournaments. However, the relationship ended as soon as the tennis player went up to Olympus. They were together for four years.
He was together with Ekaterina Bestuzheva for a year.
New passion of the athlete became fashion model Maria Krivtsova.
In 2003, Safin dated top model Tatiana Korsakova.
And in 2004 he met designer Daria Zhukova, but the girl left him and married oligarch Roman Abramovich.
After that Safin dated Elena Korikova, Alice Selezneva, Jessica Biel, Nastya Osipova.
In 2007 Marat met Russian model Anna Druzyaka. Later he dated several girls but in 2012 Marat returned to Anna.
Later, in 2016, opera singer Aida Garifullina became a girlfriend of the handsome man. However, they broke up in 2017.