All roughly represent how football players, hockey players or, say, skaters train. The work of the national tennis team is not like anything.
Nikolai Davydenko and Marat Safin did without a warm-up. They just started throwing the ball to each other and, as it turned out, were warming up. Then Safin began to practice blows.
At the 15th minute of training, Marat first tried to break a racket. He did not hit on the right, and again sending the ball into the net, he attacked the court with all his strength. The racket jumped, but withstood. Then Safin threw her behind the bench and went to drink water.
On the box of drinks were packs of tennis balls. Without thinking twice, Marat threw them aside and took out a bottle of mineral water. They did not risk approaching him for a long time. And only Buyan sat down and relaxed, Nikolay Davydenko and the national team coach Alexander Volkov timidly approached him. Nikolai said something to Safin with a guilty look.
- I stand calmly! What are you hitting the wrong way ?! - Marat shouted suddenly, as soon as the lesson resumed.
Davydenko, who gave a very comfortable ball a second ago, froze. But it turned out that Safin reproached himself not with these exclamations.
“Will you ... raise or not?” - such was the continuation of Marat when he did not get on the left. - It’s necessary to move it just a couple of meters.
Then he threw the ball far into the stands. And he repeated this trick twice more. So you can’t get enough balls for this team.
- The senses! - exclaimed Marat. - Where are the feelings ?!
Team captain Shamil Tarpishchev did not intervene in anything. He talked - on the phone or with suitable acquaintances. Occasionally he approached tennis players who rested every 15 minutes and joked. Athletes laughed.
Alexander Volkov only served the balls. Athletes, apparently, themselves know what to do. The coach even during breaks preferred to talk on extraneous topics.
And Safin continued to draw attention to himself. Suddenly he grabbed his left leg and began some manipulations. Five journalists, an Olimpiysky worker who had a dinner on the podium, and the sleepy guards became agitated.
But it turned out that this is one of the methods of raising the mood. True, nothing helped Marat. He very often did not get where he planned.
- Why are photographers shooting us? - evil, but not very loud, he asked Volkov.
“Let them take it off,” the coach answered.
“Would you take them, but a racket ...” Safin dreamed, but Davydenko and Volkov for some reason only laughed.
- And who was nervous today? - the team captain Shamil Tarpishchev was amazed later. - Drop it! This is his normal state in training. Worse if Safin trained without emotion. In general everything is good.
Nikolai Davydenko retired half an hour before the official end. This is easily explained by a recent marriage. There are suspicions that the spouse was near the court. But no one has confirmed or refuted this version.
And Safin began running exercises. And in the end he wound up circles until 15.10, delaying the occupation of the Argentines for ten minutes. Those nervously shifted in the aisle. In such competitions, the schedule must be followed exactly.
In such a simple way, Safin secured a minimal advantage. Because the Argentines will be taken off the court exactly at the time indicated in the schedule. And not a second later.
Alexey Shevchenko