Two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin is considering retirement after a 6-0, 7-6 (4) loss to Juan Monaco in the first round of the Paris Masters on Monday.
Safin, a former top-ranked player and a three-time champion at the Paris tournament, wants a long break before making a decision.
“I don’t know what happened. Just couldn’t find my rhythm and couldn’t find the game,” the 28-year-old Russian said. “I need to think everything through. I have no pressure and I have nothing to prove or show. I just want to be comfortable with my decision, whatever I will take.”
PHOTO: AP
Safin managed only 12 points in the first set and trailed 2-0 in the second after just 24 minutes. In the first service game of the second set, Safin had four double faults before breaking back to 2-2.
“I need to sit down and relax and just enjoy my life without any tennis [for] a couple of months and then I will see,” Safin said. “If I feel like I want to continue to play, I will. If not, it will be over.”
Safin won the US Open in 2000 and the Australian Open in 2005.
He hasn’t won a tour title since the victory in Australia.
“I’ve been struggling throughout my career with injuries left and right,” said Safin, who is ranked No. 31. “It’s a little bit uncomfortable to find yourself in the top 10 for many years and to find yourself ranked 70 and 30 and 50 ... It’s not really a comfortable position.”
Also on Monday, former champion Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Marin Cilic of Croatia and Nicolas Kiefer of Germany all advanced to the second round in straight sets.
Berdych, the 2005 winner, eased past Robby Ginepri of the US 6-4, 7-5, Cilic downed Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (5), 6-2, and Kiefer beat big-serving Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-4, 7-5. Simone Bolelli beat Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 6-4.
Sam Querrey of the US advanced to a second-round match against fourth-seeded Andy Murray. The big-serving Querrey had secured a break in the third set and was leading 7-5, 6-7 (5), 3-2 when Marcos Baghdatis retired.
Baghdatis, a Paris semi-finalist last year, quit after calling a trainer to massage his lower back.
There were also wins on Monday for Mario Ancic of Croatia, Feliciano Lopez of Spain and Igor Andreev of Russia.
Ancic beat Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Lopez beat Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4 and Andreev downed Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 7-6 (6), 6-3.
■ QUEBEC CHALLENGE
AFP, QUEBEC, CANADA
American Melanie Oudin upset Austrian second seed Sybille Bammer 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 on Monday in a first-round match at the US$175,000 WTA Quebec Challenge.
Oudin, ranked 209th with only one prior WTA victory, cut short Bammer’s bid for a second career WTA title and advanced to next face Russian Olga Puchkova, who eliminated Canadian wild card Marie-Eve Pelletier 6-3, 6-1.
Bammer reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final last month at the US Open and also reached the final eight at the Beijing Olympics.
But Bammer, 28, has struggled since her New York run. She was ousted in the second round last month at Stuttgart and the first round earlier this month in Zurich before her rally against Oudin fell short.
In other first-round matches, Canadian wild card Valerie Tetreault defeated France’s Mathilde Johansson 6-1, 7-5 and American Julie Ditty downed Poland’s Urszula Radwanska 7-6 (7/1), 6-2.
Russian Nadia Petrova is the top seed in the penultimate event of the WTA season, a 32-player event that pays a top prize of US$28,000. American Lindsay Davenport, who won here last year, is not defending her crown.
■ HOPMAN CUP
AP, PERTH, AUSTRALIA
Serena Williams and James Blake will represent the top-seeded US in the Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis tournament, organizers said yesterday.
Williams and Blake combined to win the 2003 Hopman Cup — one of four titles for the US in the 20-year history of the event.
Lleyton Hewitt and Casey Dellacqua are scheduled to represent Australia in the tournament from Jan. 3 to Jan. 9.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
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