OPEN 13
Marseille
FEBRUARY 24, 2004
Clement, Safin Advance; Srichaphan Falls in Opening Round
Third seed Paradorn Srichaphan, playing in Marseille for the first time, lost
in the opening round for the second straight week, falling to Spaniard Alberto
Martin 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Wild card and eighth seed Marat Safin defeated German qualifier Florian Mayer
6-3, 6-4 to win his first match (1-2) in Marseille. Safin twisted his right
ankle when leading 4-2 in the second set (ATP trainer taped the ankle) but
went on to win in 1 hour and 7 minutes. He served 14 aces without facing a
single break point.
Safin, who is 2nd in the INDESIT ATP 2004 Race after reaching the Australian
Open final earlier this month, lost opening round matches in Marseille in
1999-2000. Safin was playing his first singles match since losing 11-9 in
the fifth set to Max Mirnyi on Feb. 6 in the second rubber of the first
round Davis Cup tie against Belarus.
French favorite and seventh seed Arnaud Clement outlasted Goran Ivanisevic
6-2, 6-7(4), 6-4 in the final match on Tuesday. It was Ivanisevic's third
tournament of the season, having lost in the second round in Milan and the
first round in Rotterdam. Clement, who comes from nearby Aix-en-Provence,
reached his first career ATP final in Marseille five years ago (l. to
Santoro).
Nicolas Escude, a Marseille finalist two years ago (l. to Enqvist) and
semifinalist last year, lost to Jarkko Nieminen 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2). Nieminen
defeated Escude, who was serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set, for
the second time in as many meetings.
Fabrice Santoro, one of three former champions in the field (Enqvist,
Rosset), lost in the opening round to Sargis Sargsian 7-5, 7-6(4). Sargsian
avenged his opening round loss to the Frenchman in Marseille two years ago.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID
A. Martin: "This is a very important win for me because I hadn't been playing
well the last few weeks. To beat the 13th-ranked player indoors gives me a
lot of confidence."
Srichaphan (still suffering from a left ankle sprain sustained at the
Australian Open): "I won the first set very easily and everything seemed
to be going my way. But it suddenly turned around and he started to play
better and move better. I am disappointed because I like it here and it
seemed like the crowd wanted to see more of me."
Escude: "I let him get back into the match and then I was unable to raise
my level. I'm pretty disappointed but he played well when I served for the
match, I only put first serves in and he passed me four times. In the
tie-break I got angry for a questionable call on the first point. This
is only a setback, I've been playing on the circuit for only two months
after the injury and I won my first event (Doha) without losing a set, which
was totally unexpected. I will continue my training program with (new
coach) Thierry (Champion) and I look forward to my next tournaments, the
(ATP) Masters Series in Indian Wells and Miami."
Safin: "I've been resting the last two weeks after Davis Cup, I did not play
the last day there. I think the ankle is O.K. but I will now go and make sure
with the trainer. He's quite a tough opponent. He's young and I had never
seen him. I did not know how he played. He's got quite good tennis indoors
and is very dangerous and he can be very good player in the future, so for
a first round I am satisfied."
Clement: "I played a bad tie-break but I was happy with the rest of the
match, serving well and varying the pace. His serve is as good as before,
and I don't know how many aces he hit. Maybe he's more irregular from the
baseline and not as sharp at the net."
Ivanisevic: "This is the best match I have played these three tournaments. I
almost beat him so I think I can play with anybody."
WEDNESDAY MATCHES
Top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, who moved up to No. 2 in the INDESIT ATP
Entry Ranking after reaching the final in Rotterdam on Sunday, plays
his first round match against Frenchman Gregory Carraz. In their only
previous meeting in the quarterfinals of Bangkok last September, Ferrero
won in a third set tie-break en route to the final. Carraz was the last
direct entry into the main draw.
No. 2 seed Guillermo Coria, who captured his first ATP title of the season
on Sunday in Buenos Aires (d. Moya), took a late wild card into the
tournament and he will make his Marseille debut against Russian Nikolay
Davydenko. This is Coria's first indoor tournament of the season. Earlier
this month in Morocco, he did win both of his Davis Cup matches indoor to
lead Argentina to a 5-0 first round victory.
No. 4 seed Max Mirnyi, who helped his native Belarus beat Russia 3-2 in Davis
Cup action earlier this month, takes on Andrei Pavel in the first round. The
giant from Minsk reached the Rotterdam semifinals last week, losing to
Ferrero in a third set tie-break.
Three-time Open 13 champion Thomas Enqvist earned a special exempt entry into
the main draw by virtue of reaching the Memphis semifinals last week, beating
world No. 2 Andy Roddick. Enqvist has an impressive 16-2 record in Marseille.
He plays countryman Robin Soderling in the first round.
Marc Rosset, the oldest player in the singles draw at 33, makes his 2004 ATP
main draw debut against Davide Sanguinetti of Italy. Rosset, a winner of 15
career titles, captured the Marseille title three times (1993-94, 2000) and
he has a 23-4 career record in the tournament.
http://www.atptennis.com/en/newsandscores/news/2004/marseille_tuesday.asp
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