By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

PARIS, June 2 – The newest name to add to the list of tennis players who need to get their act together is the reigning U.S. Open champion Marat Safin. If comedian Joan Rivers had a presence in tennis, she would send Safin a strong message by screeching her most famous line at him – "Oh, Grow Up!"

There's certainly no denying that the 21-year-old Russian is a mega-talented player and should have a mega-successful career. As way of proof of his abilities, remember how he picked apart Pete Sampras in four-sets for the U.S. Open title.

But Safin is quickly becoming the player to pick apart for his indifferent attitude and sloppy shot making. On a cold and dank Saturday afternoon at Roland Garros, the second-seeded Safin became a target for criticism again after a barrage of careless errors left him a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 0-6, 6-1 loser to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.

A sore loser, Safin did not endear himself to the international media when he disregarded his responsibility to chat with the press and took flight from the Roland Garros grounds. It's too bad since on a good day, Safin can be a very funny and charming conversationalist. And be assured, tennis officials were not amused by Safin skipping out on the mandatory interview and have fined the Muscovite $10,000 American greenbacks.

While it is true that the Russian has been hampered by a back and hip injury all season, and has only been able to defeat Santoro on one of seven of occasions they've played, Safin should have sucked it up and showed up to explain his loss.

Safin arrived at Roland Garros this year with an unimpressive 4-5 win-loss record on clay, a far cry from last year when he posted a 20-3 win-loss on the red dirt, winning Barcelona and Mallorca and scored a final slot at the tennis Masters Series-Hamburg.

Apparently, hiring former world No. 1 Mats Wilander as his personal coach this year has not proven to increase Safin's success and we wonder how long the Greenwich, CT. based Swede will stay on board to tutor the Russian.

In case you think tennisreporters.net is being harsh, we're not the only people picking on Safin. His own countryman, former French and Australian Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov heavily criticized Safin last Wednesday.

"Young guys at the moment, they have a very bad attitude compared with the one the old guys had like Sampras, Agassi, Chang, for example," said Kafelnikov. "You know, they had success even earlier than the guys like Safin. "I respect Marat for what he's accomplished last year, but he has to grow up as a mature person because the attitude is not quite professional like those guys had.

"And that's the only compliment I want to give him. I'm strongly hoping that he's going to change his attitude and understand that sometimes the success, what he had before, it's in the past."

Safin is a remarkable talent and he has the potential to make his U.S. Open crown just one of many Grand Slam successes in his career. But if he doesn't grow-up and get his act together he could find himself a one Slam wonder.