Safin Collects the Appearance Fee and Runs at ATP Sopot

Posted on August 12, 2004

Top-seeded Marat Safin, who has already voiced his displeasure at men's professional tennis being part of next week's Athens Olympics, decided he would take an early break from the ATP stop in Sopot Wednesday, lying down in front of Spanish comer Marc Lopez in a meek 6-3, 6-2 display.

"I didn't expect him to play so well," Safin said. "He was a little bit lucky with the break in the first. I felt a little unlucky, he started to play with more confidence. I was trying to play too fast to keep the points short. I tried to play really fast as otherwise when you start to play long rallies, he plays much better."

Safin says he played Sopot on the claycourts a week before the Olympics on hardcourt in an effort to put more points on the board.

"I came here because it was in my schedule, because I wanted to play here and it's important to play in Houston (Masters Cup) at the end of the year," Safin said. "So every tournament I play is important for the points. The Olympics is not until next week, I will arrive there and there is plenty of time."

Lopez had a 7-10 record on the year entering the match with Safin.

Argentine Juan "The Principality" Monaco (d. Rosset) was another un-seed into the quarters Wednesday, while (6)Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal eased by France's Arnaud Di Pascuale, and (Q)Franco "The Squirrel" Squillari beat Polish wildcard Lukasz Kubot.

On tap for today are (3)Ferrer vs. Acasuso, (Q)Mantilla vs. Portas in an all-ESP, (Q)Vanek vs. Koubek, and Mutis vs. Garcia.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Does it matter what surface you're playing on when you're brainlessly bashing balls from the baseline with one of the new super-racquets? Top-seeded Anastasia Myskina continued her claycourt week at the WTA stop in Sopot in preparation for next week's Athens Olympics on hardcourt, Wednesday easing by "Oh!" Zuzana Ondraskova 6-2, 6-2 to advance in Poland.

Other seeded winners were (5)Iveta Benesova (d. Talaja in three), (9)Flavia "Of the Day" Pennetta (d. Libuse "Is Loose" Prusova), (10)Marta Marrero (d. Birnerova), and (11)Klara "Kouky" Koukalova (d. Douchevina in three).

There were two upsets on the day, with Polish wildcard Marta Domachowska leading the homecountry crowd into a frenzied celebration with an upset of (2)Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi, and Lubomira Kurhajcova ousting (3)Dinara "Little Sis" Safina, who made her exit on the same day as her big brother, must have been a super-saver fare available that day to Athens. Unseeded Nuria Llagostera "Pancho" Vives also moved on with a win over fellow un-seed Ludmila Cervanova in three.

Today's line up is Myskina vs. Benesova, Marrero vs. Domachowska, Pennetta vs. "Pancho" Vives, and Kurhajcova vs. "Kouky" Koukalova.

All five seeds in play advanced Wednesday at the Tier V crap-stop in Vancouver in (7)Anna-Lena Groenefeld (d. (Q)Okamoto), (8)Lindsay Lee-Waters (d. Voskoboeva), (3)Alina Jidkova (d. Peng), (6)Rita "Ain't It" Grande (d. Hopkins) and (4)Laura Granville (d. Mattek), along with un-seed Vilmarie Castellvi of Puerto Rico (d. (WC)Pelletier.

On today in Vancouver are Castellvi vs. Sequera, Bartoli vs. Pin, Irvin vs. Vaidisova, and Karatantcheva vs. Groenefeld.

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Chanda Rubin will replace Serena Williams as Venus' doubles partner at the Olympics -- that's a lot of pressure, subbing in on the defending champion gold medal team...The ITF released the Olympic seedings yesterday, here are the Top 8 women and men: 1. Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL), 2. Amelie Mauresmo (FRA), 3. Anastasia Myskina (RUS), 4. Elena Dementieva (RUS), 5. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS), 6. Venus Williams (USA), 7. Paola Suarez (ARG), 8. Ai Sugiyama (JPN); and for the men 1. Roger Federer (SUI), 2. Andy Roddick (USA), 3. Carlos Moya (ESP), 4. Tim Henman (GBR), 5. Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP), 6. David Nalbandian (ARG), 7. Rainer Schuettler (GER), 8. Sebastien Grosjean (FRA)...In a letter sent to International Tennis Federation chief (ITF) Francesco Ricci Bitti and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge on Wednesday, ATP chief Mark Miles explained why they would be backing down and awarding points for the 2004 Olympics, even though they had stipulations were countries not to elect players who qualify under the ATP Rankings, as in the case of "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter of The Netherlands who will miss the Olympics even though his ranking qualifies: "Sluiter...was properly qualified by virtue of his ATP Entry Ranking position and very much wished to represent his country in the Athens tennis competition. Though our agreement allows for us to do otherwise, the ATP will award points for the Olympic Tennis Event in Athens. This past week, when confronted with the issue, the consensus of ATP players and ATP player leadership was to withdraw points from the competition. However, Sluiter, a member of the ATP Player Council, urged his fellow Council members to keep the points in place as of this late date as a matter of fairness to the other players entered in the competition." Way to stick it to the ITF for screwing you again, you really showed them...Serena on pulling from the U.S. Olympic team: "I am sad and disappointed, not only because I am unable to travel to Greece and participate in the Olympics, but also because I gave my word that I would play. I feel that I am letting down my sister Venus, Zina and the other members of the U.S. team by not participating."...At the senior tour stop in Graz, Austria yesterday, Boris Becker d. Guy Forget in three, saving a match point, and is one win away from gaining the final. In other matches Thomas Muster d. Sergi Bruguera, and Jim Courier d. Mats Wilander. On court today are Alex Antonitsch vs. Mikael Pernfors, Courier vs. Bruguera, and Mansour Bahrami vs. Mikael Pernfors. That's according to the schedule, which is probably wrong, because that's a lot of Pernfors for any crowd to sit through.