The Incendiaries
Marat, originally uploaded by saffysafina
“They were children of the waning cold war, a pair of Russian firecrackers, brother and sister born to a tennis coach and a tennis club director, into hellish temperaments and grand ambitions in 1980s Moscow. They arrived on the premier courts of the United States Open yesterday passing a torch.”
The New York Times on the Safins, Marat and Dinara, at the US Open. I’m used to reading harsh criticism of Marat, but this one is just mean and reeks of schadenfreude. Then again the NYT coverage of the US Open so far has ranged from blah to idiotic. Even the editing has been sloppy. “Marat came to the US Open to revive her career”—they can’t tell the boys and girls apart. “Bahjin is practice partner to Serena Williams, whose job is a combination of athlete, assistant, and friend”—Serena is his assistant?! “James Blake etc discuss their favorite moments were at the Open…”—Someone fell asleep at the keyboard.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 28th, 2008 at 00:43
Safin is always a pleasure to watch because you never know what stunt he’s going to pull next…throw invectives in Russian? Just decide to end the game? Throw his racket? He’s interesting in a “what ‘interesting’ thing is he gonna do this time?” way.
Safina is her bro’s exact opposite. So far, her game is solid. And so is her mindset. She’s doing not so bad on on the hotness-o’-meter, either, but her brother is Marat.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:47
for some reason, I cant stand Dinara…
when Marat throws tantrum oncourt, its hot but with Dinara its like…hmmm..nakakaasar!