Well thanks to Addie, I figured out that The Tennis Channel Open was on, you guessed it, The Tennis Channel
so immediately subscribed and after indifferently watching a doubles match, Marat arrived.
Wearing white, for those of you who are interested in such things.
And as it goes without saying, looking very yummy indeed.
His tennis though, was a lot less yummy.
It was a very sloppy start to the match from Marat. Spraying shots off both sides. More off the forehand as to be expected. As I said more than 20 unforced errors in the first six games. At one stage igor had one 18 points, 17 of which were UE's from Marat.
Marat started to kind of peek outside his daze once he was a break down, but he was just all over the place. No offense to Igor, but all he had to do was stay steady and he did. With plenty of help from Marat.
After 1 set and a game Marat was up to 31 UE's. First serve was AWOL. Basically nothing was working the way he wanted, there was lots of head shaking and Marat just looked like he couldn't figure out where his tennis had gone missing to.
And to his credit, Marat did try to change it up a bit. Taking a bit of pace off, not going for winners right off the bat. He came to the net a bit more.
Some of it worked and some of it didn't. He had break points when Igor was serving for 3-1. A bit of bad luck on the first one and sprayed a forehand on the second one.
That's when the Russian monologue started.
More credit to Marat, he stuck with it. Didn't lose his head totally. He brought things back to 3-3. Things were tight on both of his service games, coming back to 3-2 and then to go 4-3 but he weathered the storm and managed to get his nose in front in the second.
He broke to love. Then served for it. Had multiple set points. And I mean, credit to Igor. He defended well on those points. Marat was hitting first serves in. But Igor wouldn't roll over and play dead and he broke back.
Btw I am actually writing this as the match is happening becasue I am awake watching it, stressed and there is no one else online to keep me company.
At this point, Marat was playing better tennis than he was at the start (not hard I can already hear some of you saying) but Igor was playing some good tennis too.
Although as Annie recently pointed out, it can't be that everyone decides to play the match of his life against Marat so the fact is that if Marat were playing the kind of tennis he's really capable of the match would have been over by now.
Marat got annoyed with someone....possibly some of the fans behind him. Cause when he missed a shot, he hit the ball back down the line and someone must have said something and Marat goes..."what? it's becasue i hit the ball or becasue you don't like me or what?" That was during the game where Igor got it back to 5-5
Marat held his nerves and serve to go 6-5. Played a couple of really good shots including a clever passing shot down the line to take the game.
Fairly easy service game for Igor to take it to a tiebreak.
That was the part where I started praying to whoever was listening. Have I mentioned hating tie breaks? Tense affair in the early stages as you'd expect.
Marat is a tough one to kill though, and that's part of why we love him. He was pretty quickly up 6-3. Missed the first set point but on the next one (his seventh overall) he closed it out.
Thank god for that.
The Marat on the court at this point, was looking more like the Marat we like to see. Overall though, regardless of the result, this match is not one he'll be wanting to remember for too long.
Ok everyone igorore this : AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I really needed to get that out.
Marat went through all the bother of winning the second set tie break only to fall 3-0 down in the blink of an eye. But no matter what happens here, no one will say that Marat didn't care about this match.
He saved a break point that could have see him 4-0 and came back to 3-1. Then he broke back for 3-2, playing some impressive defense.
Can I just take this time out to say that Marat should ban drop shots from his brain? One hair brained attempt earlier cost him an important point and another equally hair brained one had him down 15-30. He managed to dig out of that hole and get the train back on track. 3-3 in the third.
And then he breaks to go 4-3 but this is Marat. Would it be too easy to hold and give yourself SOME breathing room? Of course it would. So what do you do instead? You get broken and put things back on serve.
I love Marat to death but sometimes he makes me so crazy!!!! Extra exclamations points from the Tursunov school of Blogging.
Can you tell it's late at night and I am losing my mind? And for those of you keeping count, as of the moment where he was about to serve to stay in the match, Marat had made 78 UE's.
A relatively easy hold to bring things back to 5-5. One of the few he's had all match.
He managed to grab a break and serve for it. First point, he charged the net. Bad idea. 0-15. Decent first serve. 15-15. Another good first serve. 30-15. And another good serve (about time says Marat) 40-15. Goes to net on a good backhand approach, easy volley. Game, set and match Safin.
Blessed relief at last.
And we start again tomorrow against Verdasco. The question is which of us survives longest.
And so ends my midnight ramble. Hope I haven't bored ya.
so immediately subscribed and after indifferently watching a doubles match, Marat arrived. 
It was a very sloppy start to the match from Marat. Spraying shots off both sides. More off the forehand as to be expected. As I said more than 20 unforced errors in the first six games. At one stage igor had one 18 points, 17 of which were UE's from Marat. 
