Marat Safin Archive
 
Well Chrome has crashed and I have to start this post all over AGAIN!


So here's the OOP
PTT_Thailand_OOP_10_01.pdf
File Size: 55 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Marat plays Marco Chiudinelli, the winner of the battle of qualifiers the other day, at about 4-5 PM (THAI Time) Centre Court. After appropriate rest, not before 7:15 PM, he plays doubles with Gilles Simon (FRA) versus Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) and Mischa Zverev (GER) on Court 1.

I'll cross my fingers and hope Marat does a wonderful job whacking balls down the line, wishing for the best like I always do...and watch the live stream, as I'm here at work, I'll pray that my boss doesn't catch me or I'll wind up dead meat.

Speaking of streams, here are our lovelorn companions:

www.justin.tv
www.bet365.com
www.atdhe.net

You enjoy your day! And some of these photos, courtesy of Mrs. Unpredictable and of others as well:
Match Photos
 
You heard it right! Marat Safin, the ever unpredictable tennis player managed to pull of a win against Philipp Petszchner (36 on the world rankings), 6-2 3-6 6-1. This is first of the year win over a Top 50 player, surprisingly, because almost everybody thought he'd lose another first round match!

Beer for you and me, and one for Marat.

Anyway while we're enjoying and savouring the moment, Marat will be having a day's worth of rest. Play resumes Thursday, October 1, 2009.


OOP will be out later this evening, so hang on tight. And while you're here, take a look at some match photos:
 
Sorry for the late late late post, power was out for 3 days and there's flood here, can't do nothing about it... I haven't had been reporting. But all's good now, and we're back to business.

Draw was already out, and Mr. Safin has already played doubles with Gilles Simon, Top 10 ATP player, good-looking at that, too, and it was not enough for the two other guys, Jeff Coetzee and Rik de Voest... so Marat and Gilles prevailed!!

On to the singles. Marat plays today, against Philipp Petzschner, who most of the Safinholics remember as the guy who dispatched Marat Safin, the greatest Russian tennis player up to now, ever the HOAT, on the first round last year at Thailand.

Head to head, it's just 0-1. Only meeting at Thailand, and meeting again at Thailand, I hope Marat does some justice to his greatness this time. Hope he gives a good fight!! Davai, Davai, Maratik! If Marat does win this one, he'll be facing either the winner of the Marco Chiudinelli-Florian Mayer match-up.

Here are photos of him arriving at the airport:
A video:
A snapshot of his Doubles match with Simon... Big thanks to Getty...


Revised OOP: Marat is playing Petzschner not before 7pm, so hang on. Here it's just an hour difference, so lucky me. :)

Something to read before the games begin:

 

I ain't lying.

Good, good news! We have reduced the possibilities of searching for flickering live video streams! No more hunting! No more tears. No more small screens on bet365. Big ones. Television! Start your recorders!!!! TV, baby!

The Thailand Open organizers decided to widen its audience for a good cause: Rafael Nadal is out. But most importantly: 
Marat Safin is playing!


I hope he doesn't shorten his TV time now that we're all hyped up and ready to roll, and probably this is the next best thing to being there!


By Channel: Live!!!! NO delays!
Check your Time Zones so you would know when you're gonna wake up, most appropriately.


INTERNATIONAL
  • ESPN Star Sports


AMERICAS
  • ESPN 360 USA
  • Band Sports Brazil


ASIA
  • NOW Hong Kong
  • SBS Korea
  • NTV Russia (Well, Europe too)


AFRICA
  • Hi-TV Nigeria


AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
  • Sky New Zealand


EUROPE
  • Sport + France
  • CNBC Europe (Highlights)


Well, I thank Star Sports. :):):):):) although I do fancy live streaming ;)
If anyone's still not covered by these, you can always check atdhe.net and other regular sources of info: MTF or maratsafin.freeforums.org. (Or the Marat Safin thread in the forum of Andy Murray's site. See LT! ;oD)

On Marat News:Well caught a lead about his whereabouts - He's in Russia, and will arrive at Bangkok by Sunday.Hmm, hope Thai fans and international fans who went there will give us some information how he's doing.

Read more to see the article published on www.pttthailandopen.org:

 
It's confirmed! But sorry to be too late, the site which offered the news exclusively wanted me to pay for viewing a short article, but it's all good now.

Good news for Chinese fans yet again, Marat's a wildcard entry at the Shanghai Masters, the first one was China Open's, but those offers are for him to decide on, which to turn down or accept. So tourney goers, wait for a little more information, just in case Marat decides to skip on Shanghai, tickets are still available at the Thailand Open, I hear...

Here's the official news on Shanghai Daily:


Masters Wildcards
09/04/2009

SHANGHAI fans will get a chance to bid adieu to Marat Safin as the Russian, who will retire after the season, has been granted one of two remaining wildcards for the ATP Shanghai Masters 1000, organizers announced yesterday. 

The other singles wildcard for the October 10-18 competition has gone to Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who came to Shanghai in 2005 and 2006 for the year-ending Masters Cup. 

"I'm so glad to know that I have so many fans in China," Safin said. "I will try and give them my best performance." 
Earlier, two other wildcards were given to China's Zeng Shaoxuan and Gong Maoxin.


So till then. :)
 
So I forgot to publish the site which caused a day's delay. But it's up and the only ones I've filled so far is Hopman Cup and Australian Open. The files are quite large, and I don't have that much of bandwidth to upload them altogether. There were doubling images of different sizes, and the OC that I am arranged them like crazy!
Hopefully, this time I'll be able to upload some more, filling the left column of tournaments to go. Check it out. :)


Here's the link if you're too lazy to do so...

http://maratsafin.weebly.com/hopman-cup-photos.html
http://maratsafin.weebly.com/australian-open-photos.html

So there!



Edit 09/23/09 Later on:

http://maratsafin.weebly.com/marseille-photos.html
http://maratsafin.weebly.com/dubai-photos.html
http://maratsafin.weebly.com/davis-cup-photos.html
 
While waiting for the Thailand Open to begin in 2 days, and still no OOP, let's drift our focus and look ahead:

The Kremlin Cup held in Moscow, Russia is a month's throwaway and I'm excited, just as the Russians are, as they've already released the official acceptance list last week, and I published it late. Well, who reads these anyway ;)

But the good player always checks his opponents out before he wields the mighty sword to strike, so, for the fun of it, let's skim through.

So here's the Main Draw in order determined by ATP ranking, as of 08/31/09. Our spotlight-friendly Maratik is 11th on the tournament.

Kremlin Cup boasts of 7 Russians in the draw, followed by France with 3, and two from Argentina. Speaking in continental terms excluding the forementioned countries, the tourney has a total of 8 contenders from Europe, 2 from Asia, 1 from South America, and another one from the North. (I'm too technical for my taste.)


Davydenko, Nikolay
Cilic, Marin
Mathieu, Paul-Henri
Hanescu, Victor
Andreev, Igor
Kunitsyn, Igor
Santoro, Fabrice
Vassallo, Arguello Martin
Zverev, Mischa
Golubev, Andrey
SAFIN, MARAT
Youzhny, Mikhail
Koellerer, Daniel
Tipsarevic, Janko
Cuevas, Pablo
Lu, Yen-Hsun
Rochus, Christophe
Fognini, FabioI
Gabashvili, Teimuraz
Ginepri, Robby
Zeballos, Horacio
Korolev, Evgeny
Gicquel, Marc


Here's a career refresher: Marat was twice the runner-up, firstly in 2006 (bloggy days), to fellow Russian Kolya Davydenko, and in 2008, again to a compatriot, Igor Kunitsyn. I say, it could be Maratik this year, ringing bells, third time lucky, maybe just like the 2005 Australian Open (2002 and 2004 runner-ups to Johansson and Federer, respectively), and Paris (three-time champion 2000, 2002, 2004).

His run to the final was just last year, let's give him credit for that. And this is his last in his beloved homeland, so I think he might want to give it another hard punch. I am done with Marat and 'expectations', they are the most extreme antonyms I've ever heard of, so I just hope everything's in his favour.

It's a pretty relative draw, and all is up to Marat. He's beaten most of the guys in this list, and if anyone's a problem it's surely him, but I wouldnt wish for that, eh, right?

But before these worries come we have three tournaments before it! It depends on the ranking if Marat can make the Shanghai Masters 1000, I heard. Let us hope so. The schedule will be hard on him though, so let's pray for his good health and yours too...

whilst I'll be praying that my boss won't fire me before the tennis season ends for watching treaming matches while working. "Excusez-moi madamoiselle, these are my precious lunch breaks" is a fine reply if she demands an explanation for such inexcusable behaviour, don't you think?

I'm pretty close to the timelines of the tourneys except for Paris, so it'll be no problem, I'm not getting up in 4 in the morning to watch. So there. I think I'll be able to pull a stream for us guys. But anyway, MTF should be first at the scene, so just stop by here if there's none there by the time Marat's match is on. Be recording those videos too, for replay and archiving pleasures. :)

NEXT UP ON MARAT SAFIN'S TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE:


PTT Thailand Open (Bangkok) ATP 250 Event
09/26/09 through 10/02/09

China Open (Beijing) ATP 500 Event
10/02/09 through 10/11/09

Shanghai Masters (Shanghai) ATP Masters 1000 Event
10/10/09 through 10/18/09 (Tentative, if Marat attends the tourney...)

Saint Petersburg Open (Saint Petersburg) ATP 250 Event
10/17/09 through 10/25/09

Kremlin Cup (Moscow) ATP 250 Event
10/17/09 through 10/25/09

Paris Masters (Paris-Bercy) ATP Masters 1000 Event
11/07/09 through 11/15/09

'Tis nice to watch my English skills sharpening a bit!
God, that was long.
 
Technically, yes. Some breaking news for all of us in AFP, 52 minutes ago fashion...

Nadal withdraws from Thailand Open (AFP)

BANGKOK — Spanish world number two Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from next week's Thailand Open due to a stomach injury, the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand said Monday.

The Thailand Open will be held from September 26 until October 4 in the suburbs of Bangkok with a top prize of 608,500 dollars.

"Nadal has informed organisers that he has an acute rupture of the right abdominal muscle and would like to withdraw from the Thailand Open," LTAT president Suwat Lipatapanlop told AFP.

It is the second time that Nadal has withdrawn from the tournament after pulling out in 2007 with a knee injury.

Suwat said he was disappointed but the tournament would still feature reigning champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, French world number ten Gilles Simon and two-time grand slam winner Marat Safin of Russia.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well at least the draw will be quite safe for Maratik, and hopefully, this will end into something very pleasant! Well I know that it's bad having a party because Nadal's out with an injury, but Marat needs all the help he can get to at least win a ATP 250 title before he takes his stride towards the ultimate retirement. Don't you quite agree?

Anyway, on other news, we've got the Chinese Maratik fans wanting you to participate in how Marat's retirement ceremony should go, style-wise, if you plan for dedications and roses. If you have great ideas, please do not hesitate to mail fino7marat e-mail address referral, here ya go: [email protected]

Good luck with that one!

Let's send a plane encrusted in gold with the letters W-E-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U-M-A-R-A-T! See you on the 25! ~.~

Lotsa,
Author
 
By Monday, the 2009 gallery will be up and running. The original plan is to dig back into 2007 but it is too vast to cover first, and I will have nothing to offer here, well, not before Thailand Open.


So see you Monday.


:)
 
We've got ourselves a treat here. The promo video includes Marat Safin!! Oh, and Rafa Nadal and Jo-Willy. Hurray! I hope you enjoy. I used some video grabbing software to grab this from the homepage. Next time anyone sees a video not from Youtube, call me and I'll get it for ya!

DAVAI Marat! Hope you get into semis this time.