Inside Spartak, the Moscow club that links Rublev and Safin

Two mothers with whistles

Safin's mother, Rauza Islanova, has worked at Spartak since 1976, according to her Wikipedia biography. She was the first coach of both of her children, and she also worked with Dementieva, Myskina and Kournikova in the very early years of their careers. Safin's father, Mubin, managed the club, and young Marat trained there.

Rublev's mother, Marina Marenko, was also a coach at Spartak, and her work there included time with Kournikova. So two women from the same small Moscow club each coached the same future star, and each raised a son who made a living from the sport. I find that coincidence lovely, and it is well documented, which is rarer than it should be for a story this tidy.

The kid who waited to ask

Rublev has been open about how long he admired Safin. Speaking in Monte-Carlo in April 2025, he explained the history this way:

The ATP reported that Rublev had always wanted to work with Safin but held off, believing Safin wasn't interested and not wanting to pressure someone he cared about. Only when he heard Safin might be ready to return to tennis did he ask, through his agent. The existing team already had a small, funny history with the new hire. Galo Blanco, the agent, played Safin five times as a pro and lost four. Fernando Vicente, Rublev's longtime coach, played him twice.

It helps to remember who Safin was. He won the 2000 US Open by beating Pete Sampras in straight sets, won the 2005 Australian Open over Lleyton Hewitt, and on November 20, 2000, became the youngest world No. 1 of the Open Era up to that point. In 2016 he became the first Russian inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. A Moscow boy with a racket in the early 2000s could hardly have picked a bigger hero.

What the partnership looks like in practice

It is a loose arrangement, and that seems to be deliberate. Safin missed the North American hard-court swing in 2025 while he waited for a visa. Tennis.com reported in August 2025 that it had come through in time for the US Open, and described him as an adviser working alongside Vicente. Other accounts, including Rublev's Wikipedia page, call Safin the head coach. We could not find an official statement settling the titles, so we're treating it as a shared corner.

The partnership was still running at the Italian Open in May 2026. During Rublev's 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal loss to Jannik Sinner, Safin was heard from the box insisting, colorfully, that his player could beat Sinner if he only believed it. That is the whole brief in one outburst. Nobody needs to teach Rublev a forehand. Safin's job is to argue with the voice in his head.

Why the club story matters

Reading this as simple nostalgia would miss the point. In my reading, Russian tennis has long passed its knowledge down through a handful of clubs and families, and Spartak is the clearest example of that. Islanova taught Safin. Marenko taught her son. Now Islanova's son is teaching Marenko's son, at the other end of both careers. A circle that started on a small set of Moscow clay courts closed in Monte-Carlo, of all places.