Roman Rishatovich Safiullin (born 7 August 1997) is a Russian tennis player. Safiullin became junior champion at the 2015 Australian Open, defeating South Korean Hong Seong-chan. Safiullin has a career high ATP singles ranking of No. 143 achieved on 7 March 2022 and doubles of No. 239 achieved on 7 February 2022.
Career
Safiulin was born in Podolsk, Russia, to a Tatar father and Russian mother.
On the junior tour, Safiullin has a career high combined ranking of No. 2 achieved on 26 May 2014. His biggest junior title, after his Australian Open title, is the Grade A Trofeo Bonfiglio where he beat Andrey Rublev in the final.
2020: Maiden Challenger titles in singles and doubles
Safiullin claimed his maiden challenger tour titles in singles and doubles with Pavel Kotov (tennis) in Cherbourg, France in February 2020.
2021: Grand Slam debut
He made his Grand Slam debut at the 2021 Australian Open where he 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 debut and semifinalist, top 150 debut, first ATP semifinal & top 10 win
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.
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 to reach his first semifinal on the ATP Tour. He lost to Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets with two tiebreaks.
Awards
The Russian Cup in the nominations:
Team of the Year — Boys Under-16: 2013.
Junior of the Year: 2015.
