Safin Wins in Racquet-Breaking Spectacle at ATP Hamburg

Posted on May 12, 2004

Unseeded Marat Safin showed the fire that could have him challenging for No. 1 by the end of the year, in Hamburg Monday breaking a racket, gaining a code violation warning, and ousting No. 8 seed Sebastien Grosjean 7-6(6), 7-5 on the red clay, showing fine form just weeks before the French Open.

"It was a pain in the ass to stay there and try to struggle," said Safin, frustrated with the low quality of play from himself and the Frenchman. "It was a nightmare to play this kind of tennis. He should have won that first set."

Safin came back from 2-5 down in the first set, at one point breaking his racquet when he slammed it on the court, then smashing it into the net post while walking to his chair.

Other upsets were produced by Swede Joachim Johansson (d. (10)Philippoussis), Belgian Olivier Rochus (d. (11)Srichaphan), and German wildcard Florian Mayer (d. (15)Jiri Novak in three).

The two seeded winners on the day were (2)Guillermo Coria (d. (Q)Almagro in three), and (16)Tommy Robredo (d. Dupuis). Un-seeds into the second round were Tommy Haas (d. Spadea who retired with injury), Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti (d. Volandri), Peru's Luis "Me So" Horna (d. Clement), Brazilian Flavio "Of the Day" Saretta (d. (WC)Abel in two tiebreaks), Armenian Sargis Sargsian (d. Davydenko), Spaniards Fernando Verdasco (d. Canas in two tiebreaks), Al "The Drogshot Dragon!" Portas (d. Corretja), and Al Martin (d. Arazi in three), Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze (d. Chela 7-6 in the third), qualifier Julian Knowle (d. Ginepri), and Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. Ascione in three).

On court Tuesday are (17)Hewitt vs. Bjorkman, (WC)Burgsmuller vs. (4)Schuettler in an all-German, (1)Federer vs. Gaudio, Youzhny vs. Kiefer, Sanchez vs. (7)Moya in an all-ESP, Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. (13)Gonzalez, Costa vs. Malisse, (5)Henman vs. (Q)Seppi, (6)Nalbandian vs. Ferrer, Pavel vs. (Q)Saulnier, (LL)O.Hernandez vs. (14)Schalken, Ljubicic vs. (12)Martin "Berzerk" Verkerk, (9)Massu vs. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, Soderling vs. Zabaleta, and Hanescu vs. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
It was Russian Monday in Rome, where five Russian seeds, qualifiers, and un-seeds swarmed into the second round. Following her older bro Marat, Dinara Safin along with Russian countrywomen Maria Sharapova, Elena Bovina, Vera Douchivna and Svetlana Kuznetsova all advanced. The only lone semi-shocker was the hard-hitting Samantha Reeves knocking out the hard-charging Lisa Raymond.

With the byes given to the top seeds, the schedule remains thin today. On court Tuesday in Rome are Karolina Sprem-"Bank" vs. Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova, Serena vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, Camerin vs. Dokic, Granville vs. Pennetta, Dulko vs. Pierce, Martinez vs. Fedak, Dementieva vs. Maria "Grunt-o-licious" Sharapova, Serna vs. Smashnova-Pistolesi, Barna vs. Schnyder, Dechy vs. Brandi, Suarez vs. Zuluaga, Loit vs. Likhovtseva, Klara "Kouky" Koukalova vs. Vento-Kabchi, and Kostanic vs. Shaughnessy.

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