Federer, Nadal winning bad for tennis: Safin

Eight years of retirement from tennis and six years working as a Russian MP have done nothing to dampen the fire that has always burned inside Marat Safin. At the age of 37 the former world No 1 is in London this week to play in Champions Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall, which will be his first on-court appearance outside Asia since he entered politics in 2011.

Put it to Safin that not much has changed in tennis since he retired at the end of 2009 – when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray occupied the top four places in the world rankings – and the former US Open and Australian Open champion does not sound too impressed.

“If Federer and Nadal are still winning I think there's something wrong,” Safin said as he sat back in a courtside seat at the Albert Hall before the start of play on Thursday. “I don't see any upcoming superstars today.”

You can see his point. For all the talk of new generations breaking through, Federer (now aged 36), Nadal (31), Djokovic (30), Murray (30) and Stan Wawrinka (32) have won 49 of the 51 Grand Slam tournaments that have been played since Safin won the Australian Open in 2005. Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Cilic have been the only interlopers.

“I'm not saying that our times were the best, but when I was growing up, players were winning ATP tournaments at 16, 17, 18,” Safin said. “Now players are only just starting to be pros at the age of 25. I don't know why that is.

“Players used to retire by the time they got to 30. At 32 you were a dinosaur. Now you see players who are still running at the age of 38. The upcoming young guys just aren't at a high enough level. If you can still manage to run at the age of 38 and still be No 1 in the world, it means there must be something wrong with the other players.”

What about the young Russians Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Daniil Medvedev, who have all made significant breakthroughs in the last year or two?

“They're talented, but to go from being a talented player to a top 10 player is like going from here to the moon,” Safin said. “It needs a lot of work and it's not just about hitting the ball on the court. You have to do work off the court. There's the psychology, strategy, tactics. They need to work a lot because they have a lot of ups and downs,” he said.