[情報] Safin hints at missing French Open

[zerkchu (zerkchu)]

Safin hints at missing French Open
Thu 13 May, 2004 13:39

(Recasts, adds Safin quotes)

By Patrick Vignal

HAMBURG, Germany, May 13 (Reuters) - Former world number one Marat Safin hinted that he might miss the French Open after losing 6-4 6-4 to unheralded Austrian Juergen Melzer in the Hamburg Masters third round on Thursday.

"I only go to tournaments when I feel like playing and if I believe I can win," the Russian said of his chances of entering the Paris Grand Slam starting on May 24.

"If I don't feel like going and if I don't think I can win, I don't go," added the 24-year-old, a semi-finalist in Paris two years ago.

"Now I'll go home, take a rest, maybe hit a few balls and we'll see how I feel."

Safin, twice a finalist in Hamburg, looked nervous throughout as the 22-year-old Melzer reached the quarter-finals of a Masters Series event for the first time.

Both players held serve until Melzer broke the Australian Open finalist with a forehand winner to take the first set in 45 minutes.

Safin, who made many unforced errors, was warned for racket abuse when he dropped serve in the eighth game of the second set, enabling Melzer to serve for the match.

The Austrian left-hander wasted a match point by netting a forehand and was broken but he earned another in the next game with an astute drop shot and converted it with a superb backhand crosscourt winner.

Safin complained about the balls used at the tournament and the conditions on another cold, damp morning in the norther German port city.

"I didn't feel like playing tennis today," Safin said. "The game was early, the conditions were not good, the court was slow and bouncy and the balls were awful.

"You hit the ball twice the same way and it reacts totally differently the second time. You lose confidence in your shots and you have to change your game totally.

"There's something wrong about that ball's structure. I'm not the only one saying it but the ATP people don't care."

Melzer will face Australian Lleyton Hewitt or Brazil's Flavio Saretta for a place in the semi-finals.

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推 a881028:不會吧...Safin...動起來呀..
推 peewee:天啊…他如果退賽，我真的要寫失敗感言了
→ Kisskiss:天呀 不不不 我可以撐到第二輪的選手不多