Grass is for cows...and Marat (Halle 2006 Thread)

[safinbgfan]

Wonderful hair-style!!! I like it very much!

[CaliforniaSuds]

Ooooooooo. Isn't this a lovely lovely summer start. Tan and shorn. Words like "cruising" used by reporters. I have predicted a bodacious grass court season (plus the new bonus of monitoring the regrowth of the mane). And, then,on to hot fiery hard court season. I'm so at the LA tourny. The bodaciousness begins and it is glorious. And don't believe those stories that Soderling cut Marat's hair. There's a carpet of brown curls lying below my bed. Hey. Let me dream.................

[davis]

Does anyone of you actually enjoy watching Marat matches at the moment? For me it's always pure torture! Had to attend a meeting at 1:4 in the first set and when I came back to my office roughly an hour later the whole affair was over but the Gerry Weber website didn't post any result for quite some time! Drove me nuts!!!!!! Well, he made it and my secretary got the scare of her life from the scream I let out out after finally reading that he won.

The hair sure needs some finishing touches (Soderling cut some holes, plus the neck line isn't too nice) but I agree with SAFINNO1: Right in time for Wimbledon, latest the hardcourt season, it'll start to look real good!!!!

Marat showed a lot of respect for Olivier Rochus in the after-match interview, let's hope he isn't too intimidated to beat him. Looking forward to Thursday.

[maryb]

Yip, I think the boy will start to like grass. He's definitely got the game for it. I'll be down at Wimbles again this year for the first week - I might see him play as he might not end up on a show court because of his ranking. If I do, I'll take lots of pics for you guys.

PS Awww, I liked the curls. I had my curls sheared off at the back last week as well. ;D It does make you more aerodynamic. Too much drag factor. And it keeps you cooler in hot weather (we're having a bit of a heatwave in Scotland ... about bloody time).

[luxsword]

WE WON !! Youhou !!!



(Hope you see my little camel, Madou Lord, been waiting to post it back for ages... )

[reese]

wohooo congrats again!! singles and doubles ;D ;D ;D
Next one in singles in Rochus! Not an easy job but I hope Marat will manage it!! ;D
some of the other results of the day:
Richard Gasquet (FRA) - George Bastl (SUI) 6:2, 6:3
Fabrice Santoro (FRA) - Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 7:6(4), 6:2
Marat Safin (RUS) - Florent Serra (FRA) 7:6(4), 6:3 ;D ;D ;D
Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) - Christophe Rochus (BEL) 6:3, 6:4
Florian Mayer (GER) - Björn Phau (GER) 7:5, 1:6, 7:6(8)
Tommy Haas (GER) - Gilles Simon (FRA) 6:4, 7:5
Tomas Berdych (CZE) - Benjamin Becker 6:4, 6:3

[emma]

More pictures from today's match ;D ;D ;D ;D

[luxsword]

right, here's what the stars told me last night :

rd1 : beats serra, just to, you know, start with a winner
rd2 : beats oli, and the rochus spell is broken (great for "confidence" )
QF : beats federer in a very tight match, now fed won't be playing his very very best, like, he's tired or something, but still it'll be a great tight match (great for self-esteem, )
SF : dunno whom he'll beat, anyway he'll just crush him ("marat is back" message to everyone)
F : defeats french wizard Santoro and THAT old malediction comes to an end

then Marat goes to wimbledon full of confidence, great game, and spell-free and ....... (oh well, can't forecast so far in the future )

[arwen21]

thanks a lot emma!!!

[davis]

Has this interview been posted anywhere else yet?

Interview with Marat Safin
Tuesday, 13.06.2006 from Gerry-Weber official site.

F: You had kind of a rough start. Then you got things together. What brought the change about?
SAFIN: I was struggling a little bit with the confidence. It’s really difficult to start the matches and play good straight away. I was kind of missing the rhythm. For the past couple of months I had difficulties to find the rhythm back and get the confidence back to be able to win comfortably and play good tennis from the beginning.

F: Is it more difficult on grass than it would be on clay or hard court?
SAFIN: It’s a little bit different, of course. Coming from clay, going to grass, it’s the first match, first round. It’s always difficult because you can practice a lot, but matches are different then practice. So it takes a while to catch up.

F: How are you physically?
SAFIN: Pretty fit. It doesn’t hurt. Everything is okay for the moment.

Q: You have good memories here because you were in the finals. So, I imagine that you want to do the same at least?
SAFIN: I’m too far from thinking of the final. The second match is a pretty difficult one. Rochus can play very well. So, I don’t know what to say. I’m still not in my best shape. But we’ll see how it’s going to go the next match. Maybe Roger will lose to somebody and then it will be a little bit easier. But I’m feeling much more comfortable on grass than the years before at the first tournament.

Q: Coming back to Roger, do you think he is upset by the fact that he couldn’t win in Roland Garros?
SAFIN: Well, I think it’s a little disappointing, being in the finals, having a good chance, playing good tennis over more than two week. He lost the finals in Rome too. I think it’s in his mind. It’s a little difficult to play Nadal because he’s a leftie, he’s younger, he has less pressure than Roger. By the way he’s playing, I think he should beat him. I think it’s more mental than any other problem. But, he’ll win some time. That’s life. I lost some very good finals in my career. It’s very disappointing. But he’ll have more chance. He has no reason to get really down, he won 7 Grand Slams. So, he has nothing to be pissed off about.

[arwen21]

thanks davis!!!

[sabz]

Thanks for all the info everyone, and all the pics - gonna take me a while to get used to this short hair - but there is no denying the fact that he is HOT!! wow!! ;D *faints*
anyway, glad to hear he won the doubles, hopefully the confidence is goin up
wish him the best of luck for the match against oli (at least he gets a day rest!)

[daisyyang]

Thank you eveyone!
Nice to know he won the doubles! ;D
Congaratulations.GO MARAT ;D

[Chachou]

marat said:

Nice pics ........... saw the pics on Marat le tsar !

That's normal: I posted them here and this is my website

[Annie]

Davis, poor thing you. I hate when that happens. When half way through staring at the scoreboard you are called into a meeting or have to fun somewhere for work and then you come back and the score is gone and the agony..ufffff....

I absolutely and truly enjoyed watching a replay of Marat's match last night but ONLY BECAUSE I knew the result ;D

So here is what I gathered from yesterday's game. His tennis is definitely improving. It was much better at RG despite the loss but yesterday he looked even better. At first he chose to play heavy pushy shots into the baseline and try to put some pressure on Serra but Serra felt very comfortable with that. Marat had some serious trouble getting the 1st serve in at start and that is why he lost his serve. Second serve was too cautious and Serra took his chance. Marat's chosen tactic forced him to perform a substantial amount of UEs because balls were going just slightly out all the time. But it showed he was trying to get used to the court, the surface and the game itself. Serra started off well, confident, strong, served really well and I think Marat felt a little lost at first. Then at 1:4 things slowly started to turn around. Marat had a brilliant game on Serra's serve, he received extremely well and pushy and I think Serra was taken aback but such an attack. Then the 1st serve came back and things were equalised in a matter of minutes. Tie-break was won by experience and wisdom, Serra got too nervous at times and his mistakes were used by Marat to score precious points

It was funny because after I saw him winning the TB even if I didn't know the result I would have said he was gonna win. He started using more combinational tennis at the end of the first set, going to the net, hitting reverse shots, lovely backhands and trying out new things. Serra wasn't ready for that and his game began to crumble. After Marat won the TB they showed Peter who acted like Marat had won the match already: all laughing and smiling and showing thumbs up ;D I think he knew it was almost over for Serra

Second set was terrific. He continued to serve strong, recieve well, UEs decreased and he pushed Serra to the edge...I think he felt very confident at the end and aced on a match point ;D

Glad they took the doubles too ;D And glad they took the doubles beating Ollie Might also be a good factor. Marat never likes playing Ollie but he did beat him a few times on grass, including last year in Halle so this is very do-able in my opinion.

He looked concentrated, just gave a couple of frustrated shouts when couldn't perform some shots and outed the ball and got a bit mad at the linesmen for making a couple of wrong calls (mind you, totally deserved criticism ) but nothing that could make him lose temper and lose his momentum and game...no broken rackets or anything even close

The match left a good feeling, it really did...let's hope it did the same for Marat ;D