Roman Safiullin

Roman Rishatovich Safiullin (born 7 August 1997) is a Russian professional tennis player. Safiullin has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No. 36 achieved on 8 January 2024, and in doubles of world No. 239 achieved on 7 February 2022.

Personal life

Safiullin was born in Podolsk, Russia, to a Tatar father Rishat Safiullin and Russian mother.

Juniors

On the junior tour, Safiullin has a career high combined ranking of No. 2 achieved on 26 May 2014. He is a junior Major champion, having won the 2015 Australian Open over Hong Seong-chan. His biggest junior title, after his Australian Open title, is the Grade A Trofeo Bonfiglio where he beat Andrey Rublev in the final.

Career

2020: First Challenger titles in singles and doubles , top 200 debut

Safiullin claimed his first Challenger tour titles in singles and doubles with Pavel Kotov in Cherbourg, France in February 2020.

2021: Grand Slam debut

He made his Grand Slam debut at the 2021 Australian Open after qualifying and reached the second round by defeating Ilya Ivashka. He also qualified for the 2021 French Open reaching also the second round with a win over Carlos Taberner. As a result, he reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 156 on 14 June 2021.

2022: ATP Cup & semifinals, first ATP semifinal & top 10 win, top 100

On his debut, he reached the semifinals at the 2022 ATP Cup after winning 2 singles and 3 doubles matches with teammate Daniil Medvedev. As a result, he moved 21 positions up in the rankings to a new career-high in the top 150 in singles of World No. 146 on 10 January 2022.

At the 2022 Australian Open, he qualified as lucky loser after the withdrawal of Casper Ruud where he lost to Alex Molčan.

Safiullin qualified for Marseilles after beating Ernests Gulbis and Julian Lenz. After qualifying, he beat 7th seed Alexei Popyrin and fellow qualifier Tomáš Macháč to reach his first ATP Tour-level quarterfinal. There, he claimed his first top-10 win by beating top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets, for the best win in his career, to reach his first semifinal on the ATP Tour. He lost to Félix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets with two tiebreaks.

In July, he won his second Challenger title in Nur Sultan. As a result, he reached a new career-high ranking in the top 120 at world No. 119. He then won a third Challenger title in Chicago, propelling him 25 positions up to a top 100 debut at world No. 97 on 15 August 2022.

In September, Safiullin reached the second semifinal of the season in Tel Aviv, where he lost in straight sets to top seed Novak Djokovic. As a result, he reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 92 on 3 October 2022.

2023: Masters debuts, Major quarterfinal, first ATP final, first top-5 win, top 40

He reached a new career-high ranking of No. 82 on 6 February 2023 after he clinched his first ATP Challenger Tour title of the year at the 2023 Koblenz Open. He won four three-set matches before defeating Vasek Pospisil in the final.

He made his Masters 1000 debut at the 2023 BNP Paribas Open but lost to Ilya Ivashka. He qualified for his second Masters at the 2023 Miami Open but also lost in the first round to Grégoire Barrère.

On clay, he qualified for his third Masters at the 2023 Mutua Madrid Open and on his debut at this tournament, reached the third round for the first time in his career at a Masters level defeating Nicolás Jarry and upsetting 14th seed Tommy Paul. He qualified for his next Masters 1000 at the Italian Open and also on his debut reached the third round, defeating two Americans, Marcos Giron and upsetting 22nd seed Sebastian Korda before losing to Australian Alexei Popyrin.

At the 2023 Wimbledon Championships he defeated 20th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, Corentin Moutet, Guido Pella and 26th seed Denis Shapovalov to reach the quarterfinals of a Major for the first time. He became just the 12th man to reach the quarterfinals on his Wimbledon main draw debut. As a result, he moved into the top 50 rising close to 50 positions up in the rankings. In the quarterfinal match, eighth seed Jannik Sinner proved too strong.

At the 2023 Chengdu Open he reached the semifinals defeating Brandon Nakashima, fourth seed Dan Evans and Jordan Thompson by retirement. He defeated second seed Lorenzo Musetti to reach his first final at ATP tour level. He lost to top seed Alexander Zverev in three sets.

At the 2023 Rolex Shanghai Masters he reached the third round upsetting this time ninth seed Alexander Zverev, his second career top-10 win. At the next Masters in Paris where he qualified on his debut at this tournament, he upset world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the second round in straight sets for the biggest win in his career. He improved to 3-6 against the Top 10 with this win. As a result he reached the top 40 in the rankings on 6 November 2023.

Performance timeline

Current as of 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters.

ATP Career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Other finals

Challenger and Futures/World Tennis tour finals

Singles: 29 (23 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Doubles: 11 (4 titles, 7 runners-up)

Record against other players

Record against top 10 players

Safiullin's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who are active in boldface. Only ATP Tour main draw matches are considered:

Wins over top 10 players

• He has a 3–8 (27.3%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

Awards

• The Russian Cup in the nominations:
  • Team of the Year — Boys Under-16: 2013.
  • Junior of the Year: 2015.