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So long Safin

4th September 2009 by Helena 12 Comments  

A couple of days ago after he was knocked out of the US Open Marat Safin retired from tennis. He is 29. Tennis will never be as much fun to watch again. I loved Safin. In a world where everyone is so perfect and determined and single-minded he was a breath of women-chasing, car-racing fresh air. And very sexy.

marat_safin.jpg

He has that rather Russian, Byronic manner; he sulks and loses his temper (he himself estimates he has broken 300 tennis rackets since 2005) and lets his emotions get the better of him. If Federer is the Mozart of tennis, then Safin was the Pushkin of tennis, or maybe the Heathcliff of tennis. But can Heathcliff ever be Russian? Anyway, if anyone can find his resignation speech online please let me have the link, I can’t find it. And talking of Heathcliff did anyone see ITV’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights? It was really excellent. Made me want to roam the moors looking for my hero. But I hear he’s retired….

marat-safin.jpg

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Sport, blog --> Tagged With: safin

12 thoughts on So long Safin

  • mimi says:
    5th September 2009 at 12:21 am

    300 tennis rackets is a lot of breaking!
    Did you get your award over at my place?

  • helena says:
    5th September 2009 at 11:04 am

    Hi Mimi what award? Sorry what with journey and being back I am slightly dippy Hx

  • mimi says:
    6th September 2009 at 12:55 am

    It’s ok- I left a comment in “a year and a month on..”, but then wondered if it was clear.
    Anyway, if you go to my blog http://mimi-mimis-world.blogspot.com/2009/09/awards.html it’s there, waiting for you.
    Sorry, I don’t know how to put a link on a comment, or even if it’s possible!

  • helena says:
    6th September 2009 at 6:05 am

    Thank you Mimi! A lovely way to start the week over here in Abu Dhabi.
    Hx

  • Deirde says:
    22nd September 2009 at 9:39 am

    Aw, he was supposed to retire last year but his manager offered him money he just couldn’t refuse. No resignation speech anywhere, but everytime he gets interviewed, ever since the opening of the season, they ask him again and again, cause that guy has an unbelievable charm even reporters want him to stay, they keep pressing the possibility of another year with Marat playing tennis.

    Anyway, he’s gonna climb mountains in South Africa afterwards (like a Russian bear), as a colleague says (Djokovic) and his last tourney is Paris-Bercy at the end of November, 4 tournaments from now.

    Source
    – I’m a Safinholic. 🙂

    PS Nice book you have there.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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