Dear Marat, Mount Cho-Oyu is not tennis court

After so much publicized Marat Safin’s decision to climb Mount Cho-Oyu, here comes Marat Safin’s letter to his fans relayed by Amit Naor (his former coach and good friend):

“Dear fans,

I am writing this letter on behalf of Marat who has been in touch with me in the last 48 hours and asked me to pass on this message to you all.

As you know Marat has taken an interesting step because of various reasons which he explained in his letter to you last week. And it has been an adventure - doing his acclimatisation climb and getting used to all that is part of climbing mountains.

The delegation has reached the next height of moving to the base camp for Cho-Oyu and at this stage Marat has realised several points.

First of all Marat realised that this climb is a very serious challenging issue and not just an adventure. He loves the experience and is fully into it but realises that it has to be treated with great caution and respect. And the next step is a very big one indeed.

Talking to me and to the people he is closest to in the delegation and his coach via satellite phone - he has decided that the smartest and bravest decision for him is to step down and to start a very long 5 day trip back to travel down the mountains and back to Moscow.

…

While Marat is starting his long trip back - his fellow Russians will be playing in the Davis Cup semi finals against Germany and he sends wishes to them from the bottom of his heart for great success.

Best Regards

Amit”

Smart, but I wouldn’t call it a brave decision.

(Source: Marat Safin’s website)