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Ex-world No. 1 Safin elected into Russian Parliament

ESPN staff

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Marat Safin is ditching the tennis gear for a suit © Getty Images

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Former world No. 1 Marat Safin has swapped tennis for politics after being voted into the Russian Federal Parliament, the Duma.

The two-time grand slam winner, who retired from the sport in 2009, is a member of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party and has won a seat in the Duma's lower house as a representative for the Nyzhny Novgorod region, which is roughly located 500km from Moscow.

Since retiring, Safin, who won the US Open in 2000 and the Australian Open in 2005, has worked for the Russian Tennis Federation and Russian Olympic Committee, and recently made his debut on the ATP Champions Tour.

However, the 31-year-old is now looking forward to turning his attention to his political aspirations. He said: "My life has been changing for the last two years. All of a sudden I found myself in a situation where I had to make really serious decisions. It started with one small thing and it grew up to something big. I could go and make commercials left and right and pretend like I am a celebrity, but that is not me. I never did this, I never liked it. I had a few months of thinking 'should I do this or should I not' but now I am pretty sure of what I'm doing and I want to do it."

"I'm in completely new shoes. This is a completely new life, a new way of thinking, new way of doing things that's nothing to do with tennis or sports at all. But the two things definitely have one thing in common and that is that you need to have a character. You have to be strong and you have to know where you're going, what you want to do, and you have to be able to make sacrifices.

"I will be working for the next five years day after day, sitting in an office, wearing a suit. I will have good days, bad days and I will have to fight once again like I've been fighting on the court. It will be complicated."

Safin has already been tipped to become an outstanding politician, with Pete Sampras - whom Safin beat at Flushing Meadows to land his first slam in 2000 - offering his support for his former on-court rival.

"In 20 years Marat will be the President of Russia!" he joked, before adding seriously: "Trust me, Marat is going to go a long way. He is very intelligent and articulate and he's good with people, and that's half the battle with being a politician."