Marat Safin shows flashes of style as his career ends in Paris

Published on Wednesday 11 November 2009 22:25

US OPEN champion Juan Manuel del Potro ended Marat Safin's career yesterday, beating the two-time Grand Slam title winner 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the second round of the Paris Masters, and Rafael Nadal saved five match points before advancing.

The 29-year-old Safin, a three-time Paris Masters champion, played his last match in style, showing the Parisian crowd some terrific baseline winners, a fine touch at the net and strong first serves. But the Russian also made some horrendous unforced errors that triggered his trademark hot temper.

"I knew that I had not many chances to beat him," Safin said following a small ceremony on centre court. "But I played pretty well, had pretty close calls and had a chance."

Nadal, who has never won the Paris Masters, saved all five of the match points he faced at the end of the second set before beating Nicolas Almagro of Spain 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5 to reach the third round. "I am very lucky to be in the next round," Nadal said.

"I played bad. I won. That's one positive thing that I had all my career, and it's important I don't lose this ability to win matches when you are not playing really well."

Also, Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 7-5, and ninth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden kept alive his slim hopes of qualifying for the eight-man ATP World Tour Finals by defeating big-serving Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-4, 7-6 (6).

The 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open titles are among the 15 Safin won in his career, but he hasn't captured another since that victory in Australia. His best result this year was reaching the semi-finals in St Petersburg last month.

"Today I will put all my memories, all my wins and losses in a small box," Safin said after receiving a special trophy.

Del Potro will next take on tenth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, who defeated John Isner of the United States 7-5, 7-6 (3).

Nadal started slowly and trailed 5-2 before losing the first set when he sent a forehand into the net. The former top-ranked Spaniard then lost his serve twice in the second set but still managed to force a tiebreaker.

Almagro then looked set for his first victory in five matches against Nadal after leading 3-1 and then 5-3, but he injured his left thigh and barely was able to finish out the match.

Nadal will next face 14th-seeded Tommy Robredo, who defeated Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-4. "I have another chance to improve tomorrow," Nadal said. "I hope I don't play worse."

Djokovic traded breaks with Monaco in the first set, and then broke again in the eighth game before serving it out. He led 2-0 in the second set, but then lost five consecutive games. He saved a set point in the eighth game before levelling at 5-5 with a combination of drop shots and powerful groundstrokes.

The third-ranked Serb broke to lead 6-5 when Monaco sent a backhand long, and then closed it out on his first match point.

"I didn't feel that great on the court," said Djokovic, who has never gone beyond the third round at the Paris Masters. "Probably a long week in Basel took (its toll] on me physically. But I got a victory."

Djokovic, coming off a win over top-ranked Roger Federer in the Swiss Indoors final last week, will play Arnaud Clement of France in the next round.

Soderling, who will take on former champion Nikolay Davydenko in the third round, needs to at least reach the final to have a chance of qualifying for the season-ending event in London later this month.

Soderling won 72 percent of points on serve and hit 12 aces to beat Karlovic.