Hamburg 2005

[melusine]

HAMBURG, Germany, May 11 (Reuters) - A furious Marat Safin accused Juan Carlos Ferrero of acting like a 14-year-old after losing 4-6 6-4 6-2 to the Spaniard in the second round of the Hamburg Masters on Wednesday.

The Russian third seed had a long argument with the chair umpire at 2-0 down in the second set after an overrule and was infuriated when an impatient Ferrero asked the official to order Safin to resume playing.

Ferrero, who is beginning to rediscover the form that brought him the French Open title in 2003, said he hoped their friendship would not be damaged by the incident.

"Sometimes Marat gets a little bit nervous and then he does something like this," he said. "I tried to stay calm and focus on the next point.

"The umpire can't spend three minutes talking with a player, he had to stop it. Three minutes is too much.

"But Marat is like this sometimes. I know him and am very friendly with him. I hope this doesn't mean too much in the relationship."

He also rejected Safin's claim that he had been talking to his coach constantly during the match.

"My coach talked to me one or two times in the whole match, exactly the same as his coach," said Ferrero, whose win set up a last 16 clash with another Russian, Nikolay Davydenko.

"I'm feeling really good physically. I feel I can beat anybody," said the Spaniard, who has slipped to number 39 in the rankings after a succession of fitness problems.

one has no standing to impune one's opponent's integrity when one has oneself behaved badly: a gentleman is as a gentleman does--a gentleman doesn't whine; gentleman doesn't climb onto the umpire's chair and get in the umpire's face; a gentleman doesn't insult his opponent personally and call him names in the press; and above all a gentleman loses well.

marat safin is no gentleman, but he is i the first player in a very long time of whom i can say i will actively root against from now on.

while it was happening, eurosport described marat's little temper tantrum as a ploy to break-up juan carlos's rhythm and momentum. juan carlos had ever right to say "shut up and play." everyone but marat is held to a higher standard of professionalism--

the problem is not that marat was taking up too much time, oh no, never that, never marat's fault...but THAT mean, rude, old juan carlos did not ask marat to resume play sweetly enough... ...funny, i don't remember marat asking juan carlos, "jc, my old friend, will you mind if i interupt this set for a while to argue about this point like a fool?"...ah, but oh yes..that's right...silly me, i forget...poor marat. he can't help it but behave badly...he has a hanidcap...a pathelogical aversion to taking responiblility for anything

ps: look at the score and you can see what BS this is--marat didn't implode until the 3rd set.

pps: marat is the only one who saw/heard juan carlos being coached? how odd...

[Karen]

MariaV said:

I am not happy about his behaviour at all and him going back to Moscow! He was just getting into better shape. God knows what he'll do in Moscow.
And it's HIS behaviour that was childish - like he didn't know the ump won't change anything. The ump should have given him a warning actually. I was so mad I was screaming: stop arguing and start playing you idiot!!!

He can't live out of a suitcase for months, he's only going to be in Moscow four days. He would not have argued so much if the correct calls were made. He serves, no one calls it out, he won the point. But Juan decides after the point is over, the ball was out. The ump should not have made Marat replay the point, the point was over. And Marat never complained to the ump about Ferrero being coached during the match. If anybody was childish it was Juan Carlos Ferrero and his coach. If a warning was handed out, should of went to Ferrero's coach.

[lau]

melusine said:

a gentleman doesn't insult his opponent personally and call him names in the press; and above all a gentleman loses well.
.

I´m not answering the whole thing, melusine.... Your opinion is your opinion... And I respect that....
But I never heard about Marat insulting and calling JCF names in the press??!!! Where`s that??!!
Anyway, I think we`re taking this more seriously than what Marat and Juan Carlos will do.....
I first was really angry, but I don´t care about this anymore
I think that JCF knows Marat... he played some mind games, the umpire was a disaster (he doesn`t know the rules!!! if what I read about is true), and Marat lost his temper and didn`t act in an intelligent way on court....that`s all and this is in the past for me.

[MariaV]

Didn't he just say: Home, I have no home. Poor guy. For the first time I'm really mad at him, sorry. But I'll still support him no matter what, don't worry. And yeah, I agree Lau, the ump was inexperienced and let things out of his hands.

[Karen]

lau and I both called the ump inexperienced and his mistakes turned this match into a joke. As for Melusine's post, not buying any of that.
And the pps Melusine posted about Marat being the only one who saw/heard Ferrero being coached.....reread your post.

[Annie]

Just popped in to commiserate with you guys.... never saw the match and so never realised about the argument I never would have thought JCF & Marat would ever have a problem with each other!! I'm still quite shocked about it

Sounds like Marat was whinging (which we've all seen him do before, right? ) but what JFC's coach said was pretty unprofessional. Complaints from Marat and mind games from JFC..... not a pretty match
I can only try to understand Marat's point of view (JFC always seemed so mild mannered to me....!) - JFC is at a better level than Marat right now, so Marat's 'on the backfoot' before the match starts. I think Marat really wants to get some good wins under his belt, and this is a decent match he can sink his teeth into. He gets too emotionally involved in the match (Peter probably rolling his eyes at this point!) and the slightest thing gets under his skin. I think both boys are at fault here - JFC playing 'a bit dirty' and Marat allowing himself to get upset about it and ruin his game. I can only hope he wakes up tomorrow morning and sends JFC an apologetic text ;D C'mon guys, play nice!

Melusine, don't take it to heart - I seriously don't think this tantrum requires any kind of bloodshed or hate campaign against Marat *lol* Marat's human like the rest of us - I've no idea what's going on behind the scenes; it looks like he's putting way too much pressure on himself with RG so close, and his results are not exactly amazing at the moment. He's a volcano waiting to erupt, and tonight was probably the last straw. The poor guy sounds like he's running scared and lashing out at everyone. (Would NOT like to be around Marat tonight! *brrrr*)
We all know Marat is more than capable of being the most charming gentleman on the planet - and also the grumpiest (to mis-quote the latest French tennis interview ;D) He's been having these tantrums oncourt since he was a kid - he's not changing anytime soon! I don't think either Marat or JFC are the grudge-holding type. I know I've exploded like that for no real reason, other than everything is bothering me (I think it's called PMS ;D) Marat's entitled to lose it too..... just wish it didn't mean losing the match as well

Conclusion - both boys are as bad as each other - need a good spanking and an early night

Just wanted to add >> Let's leave the arguing to the professionals, eh? Everybody's upset tonight, for one reason or another, and a lot of people are saying things I don't think they really mean, or may not feel tomorrow morning. So let's give each other the space to let off steam, whatever they may be feeling, and then call it quits. No need to lose friends over someone else's argument

[Teresa]

Well said Ruth
Pretty much sums it up for me
so *amen* to that

[Karen]

Teresa said:

Well said Ruth
Pretty much sums it up for me
so *amen* to that

Yep, works for me also. Hamburg is history time to move on.
Ruth, just a thought. Can I do the spanking?

[Teresa]

Karen said:

.
Ruth, just a thought. Can I do the spanking?

Hahahhaha..................but if there is any spanking to be done I guess Ruth will have that honour!! ;D

[Karen]

Well.....if Ruth needs some assistance.....

[Teresa]

Karen said:

Well.....if Ruth needs some assistance.....

True................she can always count on us lol

But just to be clear here, I am only voluntering to *spank* Marat............

I am going to take a cold, cold shower

[Karen]

I think I'll do the same CYA tomorrow!!

[melusine]

this is from men's tennis forum, from some one who did watch the match:

yeah i got to watch the whole match cos i was off school sick today (handily enough ). in the first set, marat was literally, hitting thru jc. he was overpowering him. and even at that it was fairly close. jc's defence thru the whole match was brilliant. jc had like 6 break pts and on nearly all of them, marat would come out with this huge big first serve. then when jc double faulted on set point *doh*!

second set was better jc broke in the 1st game despite marat cruising at 40-0 and it went on serve after that. but the whole incident with marat and the umpire happened a few games after that...marat was serving at 40-30 i think and he hit a serve straight down the middle, jc returned it sortof weakly and then stopped playing and turned around to the linesman behind him, while marat moved up the court and finished the point. and then the umpire came down and called it out. and it clearly was out like, the hawkeye thing showed it. and then, i think they replayed the point or something, but andyways, it went to deuce. and thats when marat went to the umpire. i could hear everything cos the microphones were picking everything up perfectly. marat kept saying "why the f#ck did u call it out" and then after a few times umpire said "watch your language plz" and marat said "well it just pisses me off". ok i laughed at that!! but i really didnt get his argument. and neither did our commentators. and neither did the umpire. so marat got up the ladder. and then he went back, won the game and at the changover he was still giving out. and when it came back after the ad break he was still talking to him. and thats when i saw jc saying something. he was walking down the other end and said something to the umpire. and in fairness, if i was jc, i'd have been pretty annoyed with safin. he kept going on about it like! it would;ve been different if it was a highly important point/game that safin had lost but he won the game. and yet he still was giving out! and even after that he got the umpire down a few times to question a few marks.

but jc in the 3rd played really well. overall, it was a great match, both players played really well. marat made far too many UE's tho. but both hit some spectacular shots. jc was "playing like when he won the french" so the commentators said

and interesting bit at the end, as marat was walking off court, some guy came out and stuck a micraphone in his face and started asking him questions! who does that after people lose??? but andyways, it showed jc when they were asking marat questions. and he stopped and listened. i couldnt hear what they were saying to marat tho...

if this was describing behavior by roddick or hewitt or coria or (and it would never happen) roger federer, or if this was describing behavior in the reverse, with JCF being the foul mouthed brat holding up play and breaking marat's rhythm, you all would be all over it.

the nearly universal knee-jerk support of the unsupportable is what bothers me the most and is what got me to post at all...(despite my having been "around" longer than a lot of you, i don't post regularly)...sigh...

it's just all too stepfordish for me...

[annie]

well, I don't think this will be of much value now...everyone has said a lot about it...had me swaying directions actually while reading all your posts...i saw the whole match on tv...and actually, i think now, it's everyone's fault...the umpire for not handling the situation very well (i also think Lars would've done better), JCF for what he did... and yes, Marat for losing his cool..but in the end, of course i'm still on Marat's side..(sorry melusine)

anyway, i thought his anger would help him win it...but i guess it only works at a certain level...and he did just lost it in the third...

on the lighter side, i thought it was funny ( because i still had hope he can win it) when he called the ump down to check...and he kinda made this gesture like shooting a basketball...and the argument where he got up the ladder..the ump said "i don't understand what you're saying Marat" so Marat got up so the ump can hear him better...anyway, the only good about it is that the cam focused on him a lot...other than that, i don't think it did him good at all anymore...i thought it did for a few minuts but I suppose what JC did (or not) got his temper too high up to be good...

[Teresa]

annie
Never doubt that what you have to say does not have any value, it does, you were one of the lucky ones to see the match and thank you for taking the time to share your report on the match.


Thank you