I don't know.... I've been watching Safin's matches at IW, Miami, and Monte Carlo and the vast majority of his errors were from hitting it long, and not from shanking. Also, his serving is down in the pits as well.
That's always been his problem...hitting long, not shanking. He's got very clean, efficient technique. There isn't a lot go wrong in terms of making clean ball contact. His problem is that his movement/foootwork especially is not as crisp as it once was, he also has gone from what I considered one of the more reliable nerves under pressure in previous years, to a guy with questionable nerves lately. But that is normal as players age and lose confidence. There's a saying that Navratalova often likes to point out. When you're young, you don't think so much, you just hit it hard. The older you get, the more you realize how fallible you are, the more you OVER think things, the more you begin to realize how easy it is to miss rather than thinking about the opportunity.
You get older and you start to tense up, because you're protecting your BRAND name, your IMAGE, your MARQUEE, your *established* REP now more so than focusing on just doing what you need to do to actually win matches. When you overthink you don't take the straight line approach anymore, you go in circles.
This said, the main problem I see with Safin is that he never really learned to hit with margin. His game was always hit or miss since when he first burst onto the scene and was being compared to Ivan Drago. The thing is, he was more fearless back then. He went for his shots more fluidly and "in the moment." Dude's developed mental blocks now.
Safin doesn't really have a fall back play other than to blast the lines without fear. Like I said, that is a YOUNG man's game. It's not that you lose the capability to play that way when you get older so much (come on, what is he forty? Not even close, he's still young *enough*), it's that and time again you see tennis players actually begin to go in reverse after awhile. There is an optimal balance where youth/athletic prime meets experience and composure...but once you start getting on the wrong side of that line, it's like a tenuous teeter totter.
Players when they get older in tennis quite typically begin to lose their nerve. They no longer pull out close winnable matches anymore, they blow big leads, etc. At this level, when the opportunity is there you MUST walk through the hoop, because if you don't your opponent is NO DOUBT *more than good enough* to take the opportunities you didn't take. Former top guys on the wrong side of twenty stop doing that more and more for whatever reason.
I felt for Agassi, the problem was that he became TOO defensive. He would ONLY go for the 1/2 to 3/4 pace rally ball, but he lost the nerve, lost the tempestuousness, to PULL THE TRIGGER anymore his last few years. I felt in several big close matches he lost, he lost them because when those pivitoal swing points came up, he decided to rely on his fitness, the PERCENTAGE player, NEVER risking going for the INSPIRED play only to watch the other younger player eventually beat him with the inspired play after a long hard point in which they were on the wrong end of Agassi's yo-yo. Several times, the match would be snatched from his grasp at the last second because of that. He would get them on the yo-yo, and go ok, this is what I've been training for, it's all in the blue print, the percentages are on my side, BUT in the BIGGEST of matches, the other guys would have that inner reserve to FOIL that well-scripted plan, and GO THE EXTRA MILE. And because they were willing to take the risk, and to BREKA THE CHAIN, they would inevitably BREAK THROUGH on the key points more than Agassi would and win in the end.
It's SUCH a fine line at this level.
With Safin, he still goes for his shots, but he's not able to MENTALLY stay in it till the end. I feel like he loses his nerve, almost like he's tempting fate he feels if the points go long and he can't put it away clean on the first two or three balls. If you saw him in his first marquee match against Agassi at the French as a complete unknown, the guy was BALLS TO THE WALLS, TOE TO TOE, with Agassi from start to FINISH on points, many of which were long and enthralling. He's not able to maintain that level of nerve, that mindset anymore, not for the DURATION of the point at least.
This is what happens to players who've lost confidence (...especially, when you're talking about a wild, wild west stylized showdown/"gun slinger" "strategist" like Safin). You can CLEARLY see this happening in Federer these days against Nadal. He'll go 3/4 quarters of the way on a point, but he doesn't FINISH the point. When Nadal makes the inevitable "miracle" get, it's almost like Federer's body/mind freezes that split second, hesitates, doubts itself, and that's all it takes, ball by him...brilliant point construction up to that point was for zilch.
I think the biggest thing is that when you lose confidence, you don't lose the ability to hit one, two, or three good shots in a row anymore, you lose the ability to hit the FOURTH good shot in a row. That's where you mind oh so subtly, but imperceptively BAILS on you, SABBOTAGES you.
Safin's problem ain't the racket. He either has to adjust his technique and learn to hit with more spin for margin, or keep doing what made him great (i.e. a potent mixture of hard + flat + a going for broke like a broken record attitude)...BUT with better NERVE.
