After reaching the top of the tennis rankings, former world number one Marat Safin is now hoping to conquer another climb, the sixth highest mountain in the world. The 8,201-metre Cho-Oyu peak, which lays on the Nepal-Tibet border, will take the Russian, and his fellow seven climbers, a month to scale.  

"Hopefully to his many victories in tennis, Marat will add one more victory on the sixth highest mountain in the world," team leader Alexander Abramov wrote on his website.

Safin is expected to return to the ATP circuit at the Marid Masters, which get underway on October 15.