On This Day: Safin caps mid-2000 turnaround with remarkable rise to No. 1
If Marat Safin’s career often appeared to be defined by fleeting moments of genius, the 2000 ATP Tour season was when it all consistently came together for the powerful right-hander.
Safin won seven of his 15 career tour-level titles from April to November of that year. Such a burst of prolonged success was somewhat unexpected from a 20-year-old who had started just his third full year on Tour poorly, yet Safin’s form proved so hot that he rose to become the 18th No. 1 in PIF ATP Rankings history on 20th November.
After beginning 2000 with 11 defeats in his first 16 matches, Safin headed to the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell as the World No. 35. Six wins later, he was lifting his second ATP Tour title after a run which included victories against Top 10 stars Nicolas Lapentti and Magnus Norman and home favourite Juan Carlos Ferrero in the championship match.
Safin entered the Top 20 for the first time after lifting the trophy in Catalonia. Perhaps more importantly, the success also appeared to flick a switch in his head. He added another clay-court trophy to his collection one week later in Mallorca and then reached his second ATP Masters 1000 final in Hamburg, before lifting his maiden trophy at that level in Toronto in early August.
In New York in September, Safin dispatched Pete Sampras in straight sets with a stunning display to claim his maiden major crown at the US Open. Hard-court titles in Tashkent and St. Petersburg, and another Masters 1000 crown on indoor carpet in Paris, completed his 2000 title haul. From the start of Barcelona in April, Safin racked up a 68-16 record across the rest of the year.
Having risen to No. 2 after the US Open, it was the Paris triumph that proved the clincher for Safin in his pursuit of top spot. At 20 years and 10 months, he was at the time the youngest player to reach the top of the PIF ATP Rankings, although that record was soon beaten by Lleyton Hewitt (in 2001) and later by Carlos Alcaraz (2022).
Entering the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals (then the Tennis Masters Cup), Safin needed three match wins to guarantee he would finish as ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF but lost to Sampras in the group stage and Agassi in the semi-finals, enabling Gustavo Kuerten to pip him to that honour. Despite the disappointing end, Safin’s charge to No. 1 remains one of the most remarkable mid-season turnarounds in ATP history, one that Safin later acknowledged perhaps even took himself by surprise.
“For me it was very strange in my experience reaching No. 1 and being No. 1,” Safin, who twice returned to top spot in 2001 and spent nine weeks there overall, told ATPTour.com. “I wasn’t ready for that because I couldn’t imagine just a few months earlier that I’d have the chance to become No. 1. I was Top 50, dropping, playing very badly. I underestimated myself… I didn’t believe in myself, and I was seeing myself weaker than others, which is unbelievable.”
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