All Good Things Come To An End - US OPEN 09

[adout]

Melzer... not too bad I don't guess! Thanks for the info - sad I wasn't able to watch.

[Anne]

Ok first round.. second probably Del Potro, which is not so good.. but well, you can't tell these days if it's a good or bad draw. But could we ever ahah?

Gonna miss this so much..

[SAFINNO1]

Initial Reaction - Quite Dissapointed in fact - Would rather him have a marquee match against Fed or Rafa then Melzer which a match i'm expecting him to lose. All be it though Melzer has played just as bad as Marat in Montreal and Cincy!

Has a 0-2 Record against Melzer in H2H on Hard Court
2008 ATP Masters Series Indian Wells CA, U.S.A. Hard R128 Melzer, Jurgen7-6(5), 2-6, 6-2
2006 Metz France Hard R16 Melzer, Jurgen4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5)

And dare he win Del Pony will stop Marat in his tracks or even, however its his last ride in NYC and lets hope he has one last memorable trip in the city that never sleeps.
I do think he will get a Arthur Ashe send off too, Rod Laver and Phillipe Chatrier shame about Court 18 at Wibledon!

Matches to look out for Rafa-Richie, Gulbis-Murray, Djoko-Ljubo - Funny i compare that to Roger and Britton (shows how important being no 1 seed is)

[davis]

You guys crack me up! ;D ;D ;D Nobody cares about the draw in its entirety? Just in case, here it is:

www.usopen.org//en_US/scores/draws/ms/msdraw.pdf

Aug 27, 2009 20:46:13 GMT 3 SAFINNO1 said:

Initial Reaction - Quite Dissapointed in fact - Would rather him have a marquee match against Fed or Rafa then Melzer which a match I'm expecting him to lose.

Ah, Ily, don't be such a party pooper! ;D Melzer is beatable, be optimistic here one last time. Del Potro is not I guess (beatable that is), but that's life.

Gulbis - Murray shouldn't be a big deal for Andy. And Novak shouldn't have a hard time with Ivan. But Nadal - Gasquet? Man, that's cruel. Well, I suppose Richie is lacking so much match experience that Rafa will win it easily. Still a shame.

[maryb]

LMAO. Maybe it's just the wine tonight, but I think my Big Pixie can get through a few rounds here ... ;D

I promised I would go to a public forum on Monday night about a very contentious issue for the Council ... but then I remembered, hey first round of the USO ... please God, let my Big Pixie be on court either in the middle of the night or Tuesday.

Shish, I can see it coming ...

Get me a couple of feathers for my wings, Big Yin. You scalped Novak for me at Wimbles last year ... JMDP wouldn't go amiss here either ... granted it's likely to be about who can last the longest on court.

Just imagine that your legs can keep going for 5 hours ... his back will give out in the third ... ;D

I'm happy to give yours a long-distance massage. Woof.

FG

PS Bugger. He made me woof again!

[maryb]

Richy v Rafa ... mmm. I'd put my money on Richy, Davis. What a chance for him. Rafa's knees are creaking now ... ;D

[adout]

You know.. I was thinking about Marat beating Novak at Wimledon last year too.. It was much the same scenario. 2nd round, nobody gave him a chance, etc.. Maybe he will surprise us! Of course he has to beat Melzer first.. Who I must admit I have never watched play so I can't even comment on the match-up.

[momo]

Okay. Bad link, so here it is again...

twitpic.com/feigd/full

Good times. Good times.

[momo]

Safin’s swan song

By Martin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports
5 hours, 25 minutes ago

This promises to be one of the more unpredictable U.S. Opens in years. But if there is one guarantee it is safe to make between now and Sept. 13, it is that Marat Safin will produce one last flurry of fireworks.

The popular Russian, who tasted glory with a championship at Flushing Meadows in 2000, will play the tournament for the final time before retiring from professional tennis at the end of the year.

Though Safin freely admits he has no chance of coming up with a dream swan song by winning the event, you can stake your last ruble that he won’t go quietly.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and a pair of Andys – Murray and Roddick – head the list of favorites going into New York as the Big Apple gears up for its annual two-week love affair with tennis.

However, Safin will be compulsive viewing for as long as he sticks around, given his explosive personality and penchant for the dramatic.

Last week’s rant at reporters who quizzed him over the validity of his sister Dinara Safina’s No.1 world ranking perhaps was Safin mentally preparing for some Flushing frivolity, as he insisted critics of his sibling could “go [expletive] themselves.”

“It is going to be, erm, interesting,” Safin said with a wry smile, speaking recently to Yahoo! Sports. “I don’t think I am going to do anything special because it is my last Grand Slam. I am not planning it. But you never know what can happen. I know I am not going to win, there is no chance. So we will just see.”

Safin’s career record – two Grand Slam titles and nine weeks atop the rankings – solidifies his elite status. However, it is that he is something of a throwback to an ever-distant era that has earned him the warmth of tennis followers around the globe.

His career has been a relentless riot of entertainment, from smashed rackets to extraordinary quotes to fights outside Russian night clubs to dropping his shorts during a match at the French Open.

Really, he belonged in a different time, the one where Bjorn Borg and Vitas Gerulaitis partied with supermodels and champagne before sports drinks and early nights became de rigeur for top professionals.

And if that approach cost him on the court, so be it.

“I have had a good career,” the 29-year-old Safin said. “I wouldn’t change much. I sometimes think about what would have happened if I had done things differently. But that wouldn’t be me.

“I am happy to have competed with the best and won some Grand Slams. It is more than most people have. I have had fun, sometimes a little too much fun.”


Safin, now ranked No. 58 in the world, will have the sentimentalists behind him in New York, but nowhere will he have stronger support than from his own sister.

“It has been such an inspiration for me to have him as my brother,” Dinara Safina said. “He went and did it first, getting to No.1 and making a great career. I hope he does well at the U.S. Open; it would mean more to him than people think. He cares, he just shows it differently to most people.”

Safin’s personality will be missed in the locker room, where he is a well-liked character. He is especially close to the Russian contingent – and to world No.1 Roger Federer, with whom he has shared some classic battles.

“Everyone is going to miss Marat,” Federer said. “The fans will miss him for his tennis and also for his personality. He is great to watch, a great player. The players will miss having him around, he is a great character.”

It is that character that the Flushing Meadows crowd will be waiting to see for one last time. For it is entertainment they are looking for, and in that regard, Safin rarely disappoints.



-------------------------------------------

Wishing for the best. May he go out with a big bang!
Marat's record:

vs Melzer 0-2
vs Monaco 0-2
vs Del Potro 0-0

The numbers are too depressing to read through, but he'll give his best. He'll give it one hell of a fight. We're here to support him! Go Maratik!

His match with Monaco was the match he said he'd be thinking of retirement, right? I hope he just focuses on his tennis. His last Grand Slam...

[Annie]

Meltzer? Meltzer? Muwahahahaha ;D Piece of cake LOL. After that it's but hey, who said draw ever had anything to do with how Marat performs at tournaments? We'll see we'll see

[SAFINNO1]

I come bearing Pictures - Marat with the World No 1 LOL

[SAFINNO1]

[masha]

Pretty USO practice photos or the triumphant return of the to be-kept-when-down-with-fever pants!

[avalon]

Aug 29, 2009 18:30:07 GMT 3 SAFINNO1 said:

Yes I will miss the tennis, watching the the sometimes witty and other times heartbreaking after match interviews, his philosophical take on life, the I don't give a %$#@ attitude, but most of all I will miss pics like these
Please Marat, can't you just go around one more year, or at least one more AO? Pretty please?

[ceci]

thx for the pics~~