Safin makes surprise early exit

[maratonman]

Marat Safin's hopes of making the Masters Cup suffered a blow when he went down to France's Michael Llodra in the St Petersburg Open quarter-finals.
The Russian top seed, who won the Madrid Masters last week, was beaten 6-4 6-1 by the seventh seed.

Safin is vying with Tim Henman, Andre Agassi and David Nalbandian for the final places in the Masters Cup.

The defeat ended Safin's seven-match winning streak.

"I've been playing non-stop for several weeks and obviously I'm getting tired both physically and mentally," he said.

The Russian was upset by a ruling from Brazilian umpire Carlos Bernardes in the ninth game of the first set.

With the score level at 4-4, Bernardes overruled a call and ordered a replay instead of awarding the Russian a point.

A visibly frustrated Safin argued in vain as Llodra held his serve before breaking his opponent in the next game.

Then, facing a triple break-point in the fourth game of the second set, Safin once again tried to persuade the umpire to change his mind but to no avail.

"Of course, it's very frustrating to see the umpire making a clear mistake but he doesn't want to change his mind no matter what," said Safin afterwards.

"It's just too bad for the game that we have people who think they're above the law."

 

[Vlad]

Give him a break, he must be tired after last week's performance. I actually think it is a good thing he lost, he might better prepare for Paris Masters next week, which is by far more important..

 

[BiGGieStuFF]

Speaking of the masters does it look like Andre is not going to make it? He has 393 points and is 54 points behind Henmen. Even if agassi wins out in stockholm that's only 50 points, still leaving him at number 8. does Gaudio with his free entry knock off the 8th ranked player in this case??

 

[TwistServe]

Doesn't matter.. we got too many injured top 8 players.. agassi will be in houston!

as for safin.. there no surprise.. he lost over 20 matches this year already!.. another early round exist isn't going to tarnish his 20 lose record for the year!

 

[GrassCourtFan]

If anyone doesn't make it, it's Henman... I think Agassi will surpass him in the next two weeks. It'll come down to who does better in Paris, and Agassi is right now playing better than Tim.

 

[spinbalz]

But Tim is the Title's defender in Paris...

 

[pound cat]

"But Tim is the Title's defender in Paris..."

That is actually quite bizarre if you think about it.

 

[sliceroni]

Actually I don't think it's a surprise exit, you can't keep your cool and let go of a call then get off the court. What a waste of a career IMO, lost the two slam finals he's been in. Can't do much against Federer this year but that choke against Johansson pretty much sums it up. Yeah he beat a 'tired' 30 yr old in 2000 but a fresher Pete schooled him a year later.

 

[Power Game]

Yeah he beat a 'tired' 30 yr old in 2000 but a fresher Pete schooled him a year later.

uh... did you forget about the AO 2002 semifinals?

Safin came out with a winning record against sampras 4-3.

click me to see head to head

 

[Tennis Guy]

Actually I don't think it's a surprise exit, you can't keep your cool and let go of a call then get off the court. What a waste of a career IMO, lost the two slam finals he's been in. Can't do much against Federer this year but that choke against Johansson pretty much sums it up. Yeah he beat a 'tired' 30 yr old in 2000 but a fresher Pete schooled him a year later.

Don't ever say that about Safin! :evil:

 

[sliceroni]

No I didn't forget about the 2002 AO semis. I was talking about the 2001 US open when he avenged his loss dominating Safin w/ a straight set win. I watched that AO match, although he lost it was no easy win w/ 2 tie breaks. Pete at the twilight of career was not as explosive off the ground (if you have a chance to watch the tapes) as he was before his last Wimbledon victory.