advice

Marat Safin on how to beat Federer:

Q. You said in answer to the first question that you know the game plan, you know what you have to do to beat him. Can you describe that a little bit?
MARAT SAFIN: "Well, everybody says his best shot, so based on that. They need to build up the game plan against Federer. I mean, every time he has under pressure he puts the slice, short slice, for you to come into the net. So everybody's always just slicing back to the backhand, and he makes the passing shot down the line, which is a simple one. Or who has a better backhand, they try to spin it a little bit too much. Then of course the frame's coming in and then you missing on the let tape. That's what's happening. Nobody really give him a chance to pass you. That's what's happened today, because we were going a little bit for too much. That's the problem. But rather than that, he is pushing you on the forehand. Slice it to the backhand, you know, with a backspin. So you can't really attack it, you can't really do anything special with it. You can build up the point, but every time you touch his forehand, he start to push you around. So that's basically two free shots that you know that he gonna make it. And every time you have it you miss it. So it's too simple. It's really simple, but you can't do nothing about it. Because every time you have it, you frame it or you put it on the net. It is annoying, annoying. And every time you have a breakpoint and he's really under pressure, he serve the first serve, that's for sure. So it's simple, but disappointing."