Marat Safin was born in 1980 in Moscow into a tennis family: his father, Mikhail, ran a small tennis club in the city and his mother, Rausa Islanova, coached him from the age of six to 13. She then sent him to Valencia, Spain, to train under Rafael Mensua. His younger sister, Dinara Safina, also became world No. 1, in 2009, making them the only brother and sister both to reach the top of the rankings.
At 20 he announced himself on the biggest stage, sweeping Pete Sampras aside 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 in the 2000 US Open final; Sampras said afterwards that he was the tennis of the future. After the match Safin knelt and kissed the court. He won seven titles that year and rose to world No. 1 on 20 November 2000, holding the ranking for nine weeks.
The Australian Open brought him both heartbreak and his second major. He lost the final there in 2002 to Thomas Johansson and in 2004 to Roger Federer, but in 2005 he beat Federer, then world No. 1, in a semifinal he won 9–7 in the fifth set after saving a match point, and he beat Lleyton Hewitt in the final. He also reached the French Open semifinals in 2002. In the Davis Cup he was the star as Russia won the Cup for the first time in 2002, beating France in the final in Paris, and in 2006 he won the deciding match against José Acasuso to bring Russia a second title.
A serious knee injury hampered him after 2005, though he reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2008. He played his last match in Paris on 11 November 2009, losing to Juan Martín del Potro. In 2011 he was elected to Russia's State Duma, and in 2016 he became the first Russian player inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.