CHINA OPEN

[Tatiana]

Ruth said:

Thanks for all the piccies, Jiat! Ah...you know my weakness for Leonid.... I thought that was lace on his sleeve at first ( ) then realised it's just the design pulled tight over his rippling shoulder muscles ;D ;D (LOL!) And Marat with his mouth full of food?! Now there's a surprise... ;D

Ruth, I'm with you, Leonid is soooo cute! I wonda what the design is of anyway??
That is one good pic Jiat!...it's cute how whateva Marat is eating is too small for his fingers to fully hold
But I do feel sorry for him, and other famous ppl, cause they can't even eat peacefully without photographers snapping away at them...oh well, I guess that's just sum of the baggage that cums along with the role of being well-known

[Vlad]

There is an interview with Jim Currier at tennis-x.com and he mentioned Marat (not in a good way) you can read the whole interview here:

www.tennis-x.com/story/2004-09-11/c.php

here is a part where Marat is mentioned...

Tennis-X: Do you feel a responsibility, or is there something you want to get across as an announcer -- do you think there is a way the game should be presented?

JC: "Well, I don't have a ton of control when it comes to producing shows, so what I'm in control of is what's coming out of my mouth, based on the pictures I'm presented with. I love to help the game because I love tennis, I don't want to hurt it by being overly negative, but I do have an obligation to tell the truth and I believe in that. I believe if something bad is happening or if something inappropriate is happening, I believe it's my job only not to sugarcoat it, but to let people know this is happening and why, more importantly the why part. It's really easy to slam people and not give context for what's going on, and I think it's important that people know big-picture wise. There are going to be times that you can't cover up that Marat Safin's tanking and you just have to call it out. On the other hand I want to be fair and balanced when the player is doing something on the positive side that might balance that out, I'd like to point that out as well. I just want to be real truthful and I want to be candid, but I want to be fair. Sometimes it's easy to get on a negative vibe up there and stay with it. I really hate as a viewer when people are just "homers," you know, when they are just rah-rah cheerleader types, when you know it's illegitimate. So I try and just be myself within those guidelines of looking for the different truths and trying to present it, that's how I see it."


We are all know about it. I just think some people being more optimistic about it than others. I tend to be not so optimistic like most of you here and I think that Jim is right. Nevertheless, Marat's last interview encouraged me a little bit because he finally stopped lying to himself and everybody else and said that there is a problem and he wants to deal with it. Finally, he realized it!! I also liked the part where he didn't mentioned bad balls, early scheduling, roaring planes and wind.

[Vlad]

Correction: I wanted to say that most of you here a little bit more optimistic than I am...

[Vassily]

Hey Vlad! What are you doing on the forum of such marshmallow opinions on Marat such as ours?

I totally agree with Courir about Marat tanking. I don't like it either. But I don't think that Marat does the REAL tanking all that much. The rest is for a couple of games because of emotions.

And about your correction: Your views are the most extreme on the internet, so... But I'll tell you that I'm not far behind. Marat is extreme lately...

[Nélia]

[sirius]

Vassily said:

Hey Vlad! What are you doing on the forum of such marshmallow opinions on Marat such as ours?

I totally agree with Courir about Marat tanking. I don't like it either. But I don't think that Marat does the REAL tanking all that much. The rest is for a couple of games because of emotions.

And about your correction: Your views are the most extreme on the internet, so... But I'll tell you that I'm not far behind. Marat is extreme lately...

hey vass! u need to catch up with the news. vlad has appeared before. always with interesting news for us. ;D

anyway, juanqui mentioned a lil bit of marat in his webchat. he thinks marat or moya have a shot at the title. which really isn't exactly sensational news or anything, but i just thought u'd like to know. and i'm gonna work on that translation once i shower and figure out what i'm supposed to read for class tomorrow.

[Nélia]

more on dina.com forum. peter is here with marat .

[sirius]

video here!!!
webconf.news.sohu.com/sports/ATP/320/0911e_320.html

about 7 minutes long. my comp was super laggy so i gave up after a while cos it was frozen at a shot of marat's back.

oh yeah...apologies to nicki for posting this up cos well...it isn't on the english site yet. only on the chinese.

[sirius]

ONE ARTICLE DONE!!!!! woohoo!!! this one is dated 12th of September.
**********

On the 2nd day of the China Open tournament and the qualifiers are still battling it out. But, the “BIG 4” of Ferrero, Safin, Moya and Srichaphan aren’t taking it easy either. All four made appearances on the practice courts this morning. Even Ferrero, who had a webchat this morning, appeared on court half an hour after that event. If it weren’t for the fact that Ferrero recognized one of Sohu’s (the webchat ppl) photographers and gave him a radiant smile, we would have had our doubts about his identity!

Amongst the many practice courts, it’s easy to identify the ones on which the top players are training. Just follow the crowd! On court 3 where Ferrero was sweating it out, the entrance and exit were guarded by two security personnel and anybody who had no business entering didn’t stand a chance of getting close. On the other side of the fence, Ferrero’s fans were watching his every move, cheering wildly whenever he made a good shot.

Over at Safin’s practice, the fans were out in full force too, as were the security personnel. However, one foreign photographer somehow managed to sneak on court and merrily snapped away. Security questioned the photographer, but decided to let him off. Safin mainly concentrated on working on his serve.

Out on yet another court, the fans were gathering with some screaming wildly. It turned out that Moya had appeared. Oncourt, Moya’s coach was being entertained by his vast collection of expressions. Fortunately, the girls watching behind the fence were not close enough to observe Moya’s expressions or they would have gone into hysterics. With the help of our camera zoom, our reporters managed to get pictures of his lovely expressions.

Just as we were happily taking photos of Moya, the crowd moved towards another direction. It was Srichaphan, leaving the courts under the watchful eye of security.

At the China Open, the superstars are all taking their training seriously. From the looks of it, they are all intent on making an impact at this tournament.

[Myke]

Thanks!

[Vassily]

Jiat I can't believe you can do so much stuff at the same time: chat with me, post on all forums, and translate...

Wow, they're talking about security more than anything else.

[sirius]

2nd one
************
September 11, 2004

Today, Safin and Ferrero were the brightest stars at the China Open. Many screaming fans were running after them, hoping to get an autograph or just a smile. After successfully obtaining Ferrero¡¦s autograph, many hopefuls waited patiently to obtain Safin¡¦s.

Appearing on center court, Safin took his time to get started with his training session. He first chatted with Ferrero who had just ended his session, then signed some autographs. His unhurried manner led his fans who had been waiting for a long time to start cheering wildly and screaming his name in Russian. This however, had no effect on Safin, who took his time to warm up, while chatting away with Ferrero. 15minutes later, he finally stepped on court.

Unlike Ferrero, Safin¡¦s training did not draw many loud applause. His training was simple, mainly comprising of the return of serve and hitting the ball hard ƒº The hour long session quickly came to an end and upon realizing this, the fans gave another round of wild applause.

Because Ferrero had given out autographed tennis balls which he had used in practice earlier, tournament staff handed 5 or 6 balls to Safin to be autographed. This lifted the mood of the crowd, some of whom began waving their hands about in the hope of catching Safin¡¦s attention. It was disappointing then, to see the staff keeping the tennis balls after Safin had autographed them.

Just as the crowd was feeling disappointed, a dramatic moment arose. To prevent the fans from harassing Safin, the staff directed Safin to another exit. However, this move was rejected by Safin, who proceeded to move towards the fans eagerly waiting for him at the exit, under the watchful eye of 4 security personnel. The crowd swarmed towards Safin, stuffing everything from tshirts to caps towards him to be autographed. After satisfying everybody¡¦s requests, Safin left the arena, with the security personnel.

[Vassily]

"shouting his name in Russian" Haha. What's Marat in Chinese?

[Myke]

Vassily said:

"shouting his name in Russian" Haha. What's Marat in Chinese?

;D

[Sarat]

thank you,sirius ;D
my english isn't very well so i really can't translate it very well.