And the Marat Safin heartbreak tour rolls on. . .
Marat Safin was knocked out of the second round of the French Open on Wednesday, losing to French wild card, Josselin Ouanna, in five tumultuous sets: 6-7,6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 8-10.
Some called it thrilling, I called it torture.
As the light faded into the fifth set, Marat raged against his fate. He howled, beat his breast with his racquet and hurled himself onto the clay. He ravished the net with a fierce kiss when a net cord went his way. I wished I was the net and prayed that my hero would blaze a brick-stained path to glory. How could the tennis Gods deny one of their own?
But the tennis Gods are cruel – to Marat and his followers. I watched helplessly as Marat suffered his defeat.
At least for this match, the French practiced a different theology. The partisan crowd cheered on its David as he fought Goliath on the battered brick of Court Philippe Chatrier. I’m no convert, but even a Safinite like me had to acknowledge Ouanna’s audacious effort to become France’s newest hope.
In a bittersweet coincidence, Fabrice Santoro also played his final singles match at Roland Garros on Wednesday. The veteran lost to Christophe Rochus in four sets, in a first round match continued from the day before. The wily Frenchman, who is also retiring this year, was asked in his press conference to name his favorite Roland Garros memory. His answer: his five set victory over Marat Safin in 2001.*
FABRICE SANTORO: “Marat, No. 1, because there was a special atmosphere and all the ingredients were there for a beautiful day. It was Marat Safin. It was center court. Crowded, good match, quite a bit of suspense. And I won, so it was a perfect story.”
Now that Fabrice is gone, the French have a new perfect story, once again at Marat’s expense.
(*Santoro was probably riffing off Marat’s comment from a couple days ago: “I regret he (Santoro) didn’t retire earlier… He destroyed a couple of tournaments in my life, and thanks to him, I couldn’t achieve some tournaments. So, he should have retired many years ago.”)
If you happen to care about people other than Marat, Maria Sharapova and Mandy Moore, take a gander at Wednesday’s results, below. (Who’s betting Rafa bagels Lleyton Hewitt in the third round?)
French Open Results – Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Second Round – Men’s singles
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d T Gabashvili (RUS) 61 64 62
[3] A Murray (GBR) d P Starace (ITA) 63 26 75 64
[7] G Simon (FRA) d R Kendrick (USA) 75 60 61
[8] F Verdasco (ESP) d P Petzschner (GER) 61 62 63
[12] F Gonzalez (CHI) d R Machado (POR) 62 63 62
[13] M Cilic (CRO) d D Sela (ISR) 60 63 61
[14] D Ferrer (ESP) d N Kiefer (GER) 63 57 64 36 62
[17] S Wawrinka (SUI) d N Massu (CHI) 61 61 62
[18] R Stepanek (CZE) d [LL] M Montcourt (FRA) 64 46 64 64
J Ouanna (FRA) d [20] M Safin (RUS) 76(2) 76(4) 46 36 10-8
[23] R Soderling (SWE) d D Istomin (UZB) 64 76(4) 64
[30] V Hanescu (ROU) d M Youzhny (RUS) 75 75 75
[31] N Almagro (ESP) d E Gulbis (LAT) 67(4) 76(5) 63 62
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d [28] F Lopez (ESP) 67(9) 64 76(4) 63
L Hewitt (AUS) d A Golubev (KAZ) 64 63 61
[10] N Davydenko (RUS) vs D Junqueira (ARG) 46 63 60 22 – Suspended due to darkness
First Round – Men’s Singles
A Clement (FRA) d [21] D Tursunov (RUS) 63 36 64 61
C Rochus (BEL) d F Santoro (FRA) 63 61 36 64
Second Round – Women’s Singles
(1) Dinara Safina (RUS) d. (Q) Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS) 61 61
(8) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) 61 62
(9) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. Kristina Barrois (GER) 76(1) 75
Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. (11) Nadia Petrova (RUS) 62 16 86
(Q) Michelle Larcher de Brito (POR) d. (15) Zheng Jie (CHN) 64 63
(20) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) d. Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) 61 60
(22) Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) d. Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 62 64
(25) Li Na (CHN) d. Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) 61 64
(27) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d. Julie Coin (FRA) 62 76(2)
(29) Agnes Szavay (HUN) d. Elena Vesnina (RUS) 62 60
(32) Iveta Benesova (CZE) d. Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) 61 62
Gisela Dulko (ARG) d. Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) 76(5) 06 62
Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. (Q) Polona Hercog (SLO) 36 64 62
Olga Govortsova (BLR) d. Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) 63 67(3) 75
(Q) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) d. (Q) Arantxa Rus (NED) 60 62
Lucie Safarova (CZE) leads (3) Venus Williams (USA) 76(5) – Suspended due to darkness
First Round – Women’s Singles
(21) Alize Cornet (FRA) d. Maret Ani (EST) 64 75
Press conference comments from rolandgarros.com
Results via: Craig Hickman’s Tennis Blog
Marat rues his fate: AP Photo/Michel Euler via Daylife
Marat, bowed and broken PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images via Daylife
Tags: ATP, French Open, Ouanna, Roland Garros, Safin, santoro, tennis
RELATED ARTICLES ON GOTOTENNIS |
Loading ...
I just care about Marat! I still have hope!
I saw highlights (damn you, school) and oh my god, what an insane match.
I wish Safin won very badly. A slam from Safina might make him a little happier though
Poor Marat! The worst part is that it’s not even much of a surprise. I’m hoping that he decides not to retire because he doesn’t want his farewell tour to be quite so dreary!
I couldn’t watch the end of that match–I switched it over to Venus’s instead. It was even more heartbreaking than usual because he fought SO HARD. The past few matches, it seemed like once he started to lose it, he just kind of gave up. I hope he doesn’t retire this year. I’ll miss seeing him–even if he does make me pull out my hair.
I’ve been really depressed since this match finished. I really thought he was going to win with a break up in the 5th set. I wish the French crowd would have showed a little more respect for Marat. I just hope he does what he did last year, goes to Wimbledon early, practices and makes it to the Semifinals again. Awesome.
I know! Watching Marat decide to try sooo hard and still lose! Well, it was a heartbreaker.
And what is up with the French crowd? I so agree with JFK – why not show a little respect? It was strange to me.
The French always want the underdog to win – notice how they cheered on Zakopalova against Serena the other day. They just go overboard. Like last year when they booed Sharapova as she walked off the court – for having the nerve to be upset about losing to Safina. Then there was the famous “hand” incident between Justine and Serena. And that Grosjean match a few years ago when play almost had to stop because of the booing – I think it was NADAL they were booing, or at least a call that went against Grosjean. I remember Rafa handling the moment well.
Of course there is also the wonderful moment in the 2004 final where the crowd changed the outcome of the match just by doing the wave! Gaudio never would have come back from two sets down if it hadn’t been for them.
This might warrant a separate post!
For now, we can just mourn Marat.
So what do you guys think – would we be happy if Marat won Wimbledon or sad if it didn’t go to Roger (or Rafa, I guess. . .)
I was so heartbroken for Marat. He finally pulled himself together after an error-filled first two sets and made a match of it. Not saying that Ouanna wasn’t playing well–he was, but Marat controlled the match so well during sets three and four. During the final set, Ouanna stepped up and showed his cards, but I was still hoping for a Safin victory.
Heartbreak report, indeed.
Hi y’all,
Let’s just hope Ouanna continues to play well. I hate it when the feisty wildcard scores the upset and then fizzles out in the next round.
At least Marat lost to a Frenchman with flair.