Mats and Marat – carefree not careless

Marat Safin's torso has been compared to that of a heavyweight boxer. He certainly resembles the young Teofilo Stevenson – powerfully built, yet not bulky – but these days the 21-year-old Russian has become so laid back he is in danger of turning into a horizontal heavyweight. As this talented, amiable giant parrots his current pet phrase – "I don't care" – for the umpteenth time, the temptation is to give him a friendly shove in the hope that it might propel him back on to the winning path from which he has not so much slipped as strayed.

Here is an athlete who dismantled Pete Sampras to win the US Open nine months ago, who was pipped for world No 1 on the final day of last season, yet who this year has managed only one final, Dubai in February, from which he retired in pain.

That injury, a muscle strain on his left side, has without doubt been a contributory factor. In the player lounge at Queen's Club, minutes after the top-seeded Safin's third-round loss to Peter Wessels, he hoisted his tennis shirt to indicate the damaged area. "It was also touching the nerve," he explained. "That's why I couldn't serve, couldn't run to the forehand. I just had to rest for two weeks because I couldn't do anything, it hurt too much. But now it's OK." With the restoration of physical fitness, Safin feels, his lost form will return in time for the defence of his US crown in September. "In two months I will be perfect for the next I-don't-know-how many years. So it doesn't matter to me right now how bad I am playing. I don't care what people say because I know what I can do. I am trusting in Mats. He believes that I can be a great player and for me that's more important right now."

Mats Wilander, one of the three best, along with Borg and Edberg, to emerge from Sweden, surprised many by becoming Safin's coach in March. "I like the glint in his eye," was Wilander's reasoning. Marat is certainly a likeable lad. Not for him the tennis pro's existence of hotel TV and room service. A group of tennis writers entering an Italian restaurant during the Stuttgart tournament last October found the stairway blocked by the sprawled figure of Safin making a call on his mobile.

At the French Open earlier this month his Davis Cup team mate, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, opined that Safin needed to become more mature, more professional. To which our man replied (guess what?) "I don't care." In fact he repeated it three times, then added: "Of course I respect all the things he says but I can't listen to every single person. I'm satisfied with my life. Maybe my brain is a bit less than 21 years old but that makes me feel good. I'm happy with this."

If not exactly happy, Safin maintains he was content with the $10,000 fine imposed at the French Open when he declined to attend a press conference following his loss to Fabrice Santoro, the sixth time that the Frenchman had imposed a personal hoodoo. "Everybody beats him except me," said Safin. "It was so embarrassing, so I didn't want to see anybody. I didn't want to have the French press asking 'How did you lose six times to Mr Santoro?' I knew I would go mad. So for me it was worth $10,000, believe me."

Fines seem to be part of Safin's existence. He was docked $2,000 at the Australian Open last year for tanking (not trying), the first in the modern era to be officially punished, and Wilander has now imposed a $100 fine every time Marat indulges in his favourite pastime, racket trashing. "I am getting better, actually," he insisted with a grin. "First because of other people, second because of me."

Safin goes into Wimbledon tomorrow, seeded fourth, in defiant mood after criticising the tournament for perceived bias against players like himself and the world No 1 Gustavo Kuerten for lack of success on grass. "Right now everybody definitely thinks Safin can't play on grass. But I can play on any surface, I have the chance to make some good results at Wimbledon. If not this year, then next. I have enough tennis in me to play indoors, on clay courts, hard courts, so why can't I play on grass? I have been working on it, I am starting to make serve and volley all the time. I will be in there for sure."

It would afford Safin extra pleasure to do well at Wimbledon, a place he does not take to. "For me, Wimbledon will never be so special, there are so many things I don't understand about it. Wimbledon is like a fortress. That's my opinion and I don't care."

Doing well at the US Open is what he does care about. "I know I am not 100 per cent right now, not even 80 or 70. But I can be OK in one month, two months, be perfect for the US Open. I want to win two, three more Grand Slams, but any tournament will do. After the US Open last year I said, OK, one more, one more, so I won Tashkent, St Petersburg and the Paris indoor. It all adds up. I don't care about rankings and prize money but if I have these numbers of tournaments I have the other numbers – the ranking, the money."

As he turned the 2000 season from early disaster to ultimate triumph Safin left a trail of coaches littered in his wake. But in Wilander there seems to have been a bonding of easy-going personalities. So far, anyway. "Come on, this guy is a genius," said Marat. "Seven Grand Slams, three in one year. And he believes in me."

What Wilander likes about Safin is that he is not the sort of professional who never has a bad day but is also never going to win a major. "Marat has this kind of Tiger Woods mentality," he said. "He knows that the moment itself will fire him." And when that moment arrives, if Wilander can make his man care he will have done his job.