tms of bercy

[dendy]

TEXT
For all those who didn't see the match - just a few points for you.
Marat came out firing the same way he started against Hewitt - it was amazing and then that horrible slip - his right ankle went both ways as he tried to change his momentum and he stayed down for a bit on his knees - soooo worrying then turned over on his back and such agony on his face. Really thought for a moment - this is it - he will not continue. Then got up and walked to his seat although favouring his right ankle very carefully. Grilotti immediately called for the trainer as soon as Marat fell and stayed there.
Anyhow Per Bastl came on and felt around Marats ankle and finally said to him - seems ok it is a good thing you had your ankle taped. Called for the doctor who gave him 2 anti-inflammatories and said it will take about 5-10minutes to work. Well Marat came back and amazingly he just went straight into it and then broke Canas. Think the injury had thrown Canas slightly as he didn't know what to do with Marat. Marat was hitting those fantastic groundies right to the line and his double hander was superb - he had Canas running from side to side. Served out the first set safely.
Second set Canas came out firing. Marat's first serve was not working so well but still managed to keep going - in a lapse he got broken but then was back the next game trying hard to get back. There was a lot of determination from Marat he wanted this match and he wanted it in two sets. There was a bit of controversy from Grilotti again - this time against Canas - he over ruled a baseline call from a shot from Marat called out by the linesman but actually on the line and said "replay the point" - Marat had a funny quizzical smile on his face as Canas ranted and raved at Grilotti but it stayed and Canas managed to hang in there and then it was tiebreak.
Marat started the tiebreak as he started against Hewitt - very determined - it seesawed and then Marat got to serve it out to 5. Sorry trying to think back I think the line call was in the tiebreak and there was another one from Grilotti earlier on - this time all in Marat's favour. Canas really lost the plot - as Bill Threlfall said Canas could always take up a career as an actor - he has all the facial expressions.
Apart from a couple of bounces of his racket and one hitting a ball away and a couple of mutters to his bench when in the second set his first serve fell apart - Marat was very controlled. He wanted it and he got - Bercy Final again. Barry Cowan and Bill Threlfall feel that Marat is back to his best tennis - he has every shot in his arsenal and he is firing on all cylinders.
On the bench today - Peter to the left Amit behind him then Walt to the right with Danny behind him.
Hope that gives a bit of an insight for you all. Crowd was amazing and felt very sad as the last three years I have been there in Bercy and this year I am not.
So looking forward to the final tomorrow.
Bit of a battle going on at the moment between Max and Stepanek - who will it be??
Well 1 set all between the two so have to wait for the third set to see who Marat will play.

[Myke]

Dendy, what a great report, thank you so much!!
The way you described the ankle twisting Horrible!

Again thanks a lot!

[Vassily]

Thanks Dendy! Realy helped , as I didn't see the match.

Myke, the eurosport report is even more frighting.

[Dee]

Fab, well done Marat!

Thanks for the report Denise! It's good to hear some detail. I hope your'e keeping well.
love Dee
;D

[tall_one]

audio on the atp website from the Hewitt match, not that you can understand it very well mumble mumble, lol

www.atptennis.com/en/common/TrackItA.asp?file=http://wm.atptennis-global.speedera.net/wm.atptennis-global/safin_paris5.wma

[tall_one]

and 2 off of the tms paris website ;D

Marat Safin : "My serve was the point"
Marat Safin : "Peter tries to make me more focused"

www.fft.fr/bnpparibasmasters/audio.html

[Teresa]

Hi Dendy, really good to see you on the board again
Hope all is well with you

THANK you so much for your report, as the others said it really helps to understand what went on in what we know was an incrediblely good match but were unable to see it. Great insight thanks

Agree, the fall, the ankle - very scary, and the look on Marat's face, OMG, I really really hope he is okay.
As the doctor said, thank god he had on the ankle brace.

Can believe the crowd was amazing, they love Marat and I am sure they will favour him tomorrow.
Sorry you could not be there this year, esp as Marat is there and playing so well, hopefully you will be able to go next year......and so will Ruth

[Teresa]

I read, I think it was on the TB, that Stepanek was not very pleasant today, he was behaving like the way he looks...(ugly) and that Max was upset, did anyone see the match? was this so? When I last checked it Max had won the first set and then when I came to the board later found out that Stepanek had won

I hope Marat can get his revenge tomorrow, I think Marat will play better against him than he did in Moscow. I am just surprize that Max did not win?
If someone knows how the match went it would be good to know?

[Teresa]

Safin sets up Stepanek clash
From Dave James in Paris
November 7, 2004

RUSSIAN sixth seed Marat Safin overcame an injury scare to beat Argentina's 13th seed Guillermo Canas 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) today and move just one match away from winning his third Paris Masters title.

The 24-year-old Russian, the champion in 2000 and 2002, wrapped up his semi-final in 1hr 35min.

He will now face the Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek, who won the battle of the qualifiers, beating Max Mirnyi of Belarus 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 in 2hr 12min to reach his first ever final.

As well as chasing his third victory in Paris - a feat only matched by Boris Becker - Safin will also be hunting his third title of the season after winning in Beijing and at the Madrid Masters.

But the final will be a new challenge for Safin as Stepanek is an old fashioned serve-and-volleyer.

"It will be a completely different style to the players I have faced so far. I'm not used to that, but he is not used to playing in finals," said Safin, who in five visits to the tournament has only lost twice - to Andre Agassi in the 1999 final and to Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra in the third round in 2001.

"Hopefully I will be lucky. They will be under pressure because they don't get to finals every week. One or two points in each set will make the difference."

Canas, who has fought his way to number 14 in the world after an injury-ravaged 2003 sent his ranking crashing to 274, proved a brave opponent, but Safin said his positive approach in the tie-break paid off.

"I didn't serve very well in the second set and I got angry with myself. But in a tie-break, it's a lottery. It is about who takes the risks not who makes the mistakes. I took the risks and luck was with me."

It will be Safin's fifth final of a year, but his title push almost suffered a premature end in the second game of the opening set when he needed treatment on a right ankle injury caused when he crashed to the ground chasing a Canas return.

But it didn't effect him too much as he raced through the first set in 30 minutes with breaks in the fourth and eighth games only allowing Canas four points on his service.

In a tense second set tie-break, Safin prevailed but not without controversy. At 5-5, a Safin forehand was called long by the line judge but good by umpire Romano Grillotti who ordered the point to be replayed.

Canas fumed, but TV replays showed the ball was in and the umpire had been correct.

The Argentinian then claimed the next point, which gave Safin match point, should also have been called out and his concentration was completely shattered when the Russian hit a decisive backhand volley to win the tie.

"I'm sure the first ball was out. I got pissed off by that," said the Argentinian.

Stepanek, the world number 63, has had a mediocre season with four quarter-finals representing his best performances. He will attempt to become the first qualifier to win a Masters event since Spain's Albert Portas won in Hamburg in 2001.

The 25-year-old will be buoyed by having won his only career meeting against Safin in Moscow three weeks ago.

Stepanek has seized his chance this week, profiting from playing in the half of the draw which had been stripped of Roger Federer, Agassi and Carlos Moya who all withdrew injured.

[Elisabeth]

Yeah Marat beat Canas!!!!!!!
Great!!!!I will follow the match on tv and I really hope that his injury isn't so big!
Good luck Marat!!!

Thank you for report,pictures and articles!!!!!

[Perri]

Thanks all of you who provide details fo the match and the injury. As Marat seems to be determined to win, I truely believe that he will beat stepanek given his ankle is ok. Go Marat!

[MariaV]

sirius said:

ruth...thanks for the info. could danny be the black haired "youngster" in the box always sitting behind peter?

Dunno if someone has answered but - Jiat, I suspect he is. A wonderful quartet - Peter, Walt,
Amit and Danny (supposedly) behind them! YEAH!!!!!!! Gerard was also there, sitting a bit further.

[MariaV]

Oh yeah, Denise confirmed it's Danny!
Thanks SOOOOO MUCH for the GREAT report Denise (and doing my job! ;D .... j/k, not my job really.... ) You do it so much better than me!
Sorry I couldn't get here earlier tonight.
I was like having a heart attack when he fell - I though NOOO - it's over now, and that's all Steph's gonna see! I really hope his ankle is gonna be fine tomorrow! At least the guys are all there with him.
DAVAI MARAT!!!!!!! What a weekend again!!!!!!!
I'm also so happy for Steph being there and cannot wait for her reports!
Best wishes to you all!

[Damita]

hey you all!!!!!!!! amazing day it was!

ok dendy already made a complete report of the match, but i'll share my emotions as they were there today! btw i'm sorry that i didn't answered all your sms guys, but first i wanted to look at Marat ;D, and then i was busy with the camera (took more than 30 pics of this sole match!), so excuse me! and i was sitting next to the seats that are for the press (newspaper) ;D

The speaker introduced both players but made a mistake about Marat, saying he had won 11 tournaments in his career.... geeee, your profile sources need to be updated guy! ;D

He started playing very well, with 2 aces in the first game (that was for you Vass ) and my friends were already like: wow, he'll be here tomorrow ;D .... and then he fell! it was very different for us there than for you on tv. We didn't really understand why he fell at the beginning. He was on the floor, face in front of the floor. I took a pic of him (i was sitting in that part of the court). But we quinckly understood something was wrong cuz he remained like this quite long (gosh, i started to feel guilty about the pic ). Grillotti took a while before going on court, if i remember well Canas was by the side of Marat before him. I think Canas has been very scared too, like all the crowd.

Marat was then on his back and you could see pain on his face, really. I was so worried. About the match (would he stop playing? ), about the Masters Cup, about the consequences in general for his ankle.... i couldn't think anymore, lots of questions in my mind suddenly!

Then he went to his chair, they showed the replay of the point on tv, and we all saw what happened to his ankle, what Dendy reported. 15,000 persons all whispering "ooooooh" and grinning. My friend said: omg, i didn't even know this could happen to a human body... i was really scared.

Another friend called me (she was at home watching the match and on tv they showed his ankle...) and she was scared too: he has his ankle taped, did you know that? omg!.... so i said we knew that already.... she asked if we saw the replay so isaid we just did, and she said they showed it like 10 times on tv, and that french commentaors were REALLY scared about Marat too.

When he came back on court i started to breath again . He played very well, was a bit unlucky with his first serve in the second set (and looked really annoyed... poor honey) but showed great things as well (successfully smashed a few balls... and ow those shots down the line..... ). Peter even applauded once after a really good point. (i was keeping an eye on him and Walt ;D)

Guillermo was unhappy with his tennis. Always mumbling and looking at his box. Not very confident.

The tiebreak was nerve-breaking. you won't believe me but i was very edgy and i think that i trapped my nerve in my shoulder! i know that sounds ridiculous, but i was nervy and my shoulder hurt all day then, and still now.... Marat, Marat, Marat thank you for that ;D

erm, back on topic... TB was nerve- breaking. As Dendy said Grillotti overruled a call in favor of Marat. We all saw the ball out (i know usually ppl think the public protests tho it has seen nothing, but really we all saw that ball out). Canas was angry.

A bit later another controversy. The ball has been called out i think, but i think Grillotti thought it was in (not sure, lots of confusion!). I'm not sure what ppl were thinking this time, but my friend and i thought the ball was on the line (and my friend called me after the tiebreak to say they show the virtual play on tv, and first controversial ball was out, and second one was on the line... gosh, we're good at this ;D).

Grillotti told them to replay the point. Marat stayed calm. Guillermo was pissed off, very very angry. I've never seen him like this. I've never seen any player like this i think .

Finally match point, i couldn't shut up and yelled a big "YEEEEAAAH". Canas left the court with ppl applauding him.

Marat stayed there for itw with french tv, and then for on-court itw with the speaker. The peaker first asked about his feelings on the match, saying Canas was playing well and TB was tense. Marat said that Canas was really good today, and that he just trized to focus on his own game not to let him play too well, and added that he's been lucky with the calls in the TB and that may have made the difference.

Then the speaker refered to his post-match conference of yesterday when Marat said he likes to play in bercy. He said: you're about to play your fourth final in five appearances here, you really love bercy?
And here Marat was funny! he answered that he likes playing here yes, he's very happy to play his "fourth,...no fifth... uhm, no fourth?" final! ROTFL! poor guy didn't even remember how many finals he played here! ;D

He thanked the french crowd, saying he loves us (i love you too honey ;D ;D), and thanked the speaker for wishing him luck for tomorrow.

Then he's been given six balls and served each of them, and 6 guys caught them everywhere in the stadium.... to come on court later to play in doubles with Cédric Pioline and Mansour Barhami (spelling?).

This is where i went out to buy my T-shirt ;D. oh and there's a pic on the program that i have to scan for you ppl..... be patient. ;D

Ruth, i'll sent you my pics as soon as i got them back (will try to do that quickly!)

What else? the second semis was boring! the crowd (including friends an i) fell into a state of lethargy. Mirnyi was playing well at the beginning. Then Stepanek wake up and played well (really, i had never seen him before, he was playing some good tennis). Mirnyi was a bit down. problems with his firts serve (they both made DFs, horrible ). When Stepanek served it out, everyone was cheering for him.... not that they wanted him to win, but because they wanted to see Mansour and Cedric playing the exhibition matches with the 6 lucky guys. Cause yeah that's always funny!

Stepanek told the speaker that obviously Marat was playing well, but as he (Radek) beat Marat in Moscow 3 weeks ago he wasn't that scared, and was trying to be posotive... dream on boy! this trophy is ours!

then we saw the funny doubles. and then the doubles semi started: Mirnyi-Bhuphati against Black-Ullyet. I watched it for 30 minutes then left. It was late, Cinderella's got to go home before the dream ended

sorry for that looooooooong post, i was so excited! hope you liked it tho.

And davai Marat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! go kick some ass!

[christina]

fanku stephiiiiii!!!! sounds like u had a great day n im really happy for u! ;D can't wait for the pics!!!!! ankle does sound really painful (speaking from experience unfortunately ) yeah radeks goin down 2moro ;D