| ..:: ARTICLES ::.. | Safin offers Roland Garros brilliance and bungling
By Francois Thomazeau
PARIS, May 28 (Reuters)
But as artful D'Artagnan or a dizzy, clumsy Portos? The Paris crowd could never be quite sure.
At times, the capricious Russian took the breath away as he racked up 125 winners in a marathon 6-4 2-6 6-2 6-7 11-9 win over Felix Mantilla.
But just as often, it seemed, he drew gasps of dismay with a tally of 101 unforced errors over four hours and 38 minutes of switchback fortunes which straddled two days.
Safin must surely be every bookmaker's nightmare. Just how do you set odds on such a mixture of brilliance and bungling?
It was, to misquote Charles Dickens, the best of performances -- and the worst.
His serving stats sum up his day. He only directed 51 percent of his first serves into play but of those, 18 were dazzling aces.
STRAIGHT GUY
With respect to Mantilla, the match depended almost entirely on Safin for its high and low points with the Spaniard playing the straight guy, only allowed to steal the odd scene with a shot of inspiration himself.
The script was often cheap, though. Safin received a point's penalty in the heat of the fifth set when he pulled down his shorts to celebrate a great point at the net.
"I felt this way. I felt like pulling my pants down. You try to make this fun," he said afterwards, puzzled that the court officials hadn't seen the gag.
"They do everything they can to take the entertainment away.
"It's a joke," he added in English having also employed Russian and Spanish during the match itself, not to mention profane.
But it was not all pantomime. There were also moments of pure grace when Safin proved that far from circus clown, he is a tennis player of often unmatched flair and imagination.
When Safin rushed to the net to save Mantilla's only match point he flicked his racket like a foil, chopping the ball away.
Countering Mantilla's measured, looping groundstrokes with perfect timing he powered the ball into the corners for winners past one of the best retrievers in tennis.
In sum, then, Safin remains a threat for anyone left in the draw. As long as he leaves Portos back home...
Safin roars his way back
By TOM TEBBUTT
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Safin, the champion of the 2000 U.S. Open, is a charismatic, colourful, kooky and colossally talented Russian who has never quite fulfilled the promise of that victory in Flushing Meadows. Whether it was because of a general ennui for tennis or injuries to his back, knee and wrist, Safin has not been the dominant player it seemed he would be when he beat Pete Sampras with shocking ease four years ago in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Yesterday at the French Open, Safin, 24, completed a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 6-7 (7-4), 11-9 victory over Felix Mantilla of Spain in a match that had been postponed at 7-7 in the fifth set on Thursday.
It had been stopped after 9:30 p.m. on Court 1 after 4 hours 16 minutes of classic sock-soiling, shirt-soaking clay-court tennis that featured the complete spectrum of rallies and a wide gamut of emotions.
The shot-making reached inspired heights and nadirs of ineptitude that can result from the volatile mix of an adrenaline rush and a crushing fatigue.
After saving at match point with a forehand winner trailing 5-6 in the final set on Thursday, Safin came out in a groove yesterday and outhit the 29-year-old Mantilla, a hard-working veteran.
"I was lucky, I went for it," Safin said about his play.
His media conference soon strayed from his tennis to a hilarious inquiry into an incident in the eighth game of the final set on Thursday. After making a spectacular return of a Mantilla drop shot -- sliding an acutely-angled forehand almost parallel to the net for a winner -- Safin dropped his shorts to express his delight and bent over, exposing his white briefs.
Umpire Carlos Bernardes of Brazil imposed a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct because Safin had already received a warning for racquet abuse.
Furious at Bernardes and supervisor Mike Morrissey, who upheld the point-penalty decision, Safin railed against tennis officials. "It's the entertainment business, you try to make it fun."
Continuing with an inadvertently amusing choice of words, he said, "I am working my ass off on the court. It was a full stadium. It was great tennis for four hours. Because of this incident, that's how I get treated by these [officials] people. You think it's fair?"
A reporter who had not witnessed the incident asked Safin if he had actually mooned the crowd of about 3,800. Taking umbrage at the very suggestion, he scoffed, "I'm not so crazy to pull my pants down with no underpants on."
Lindsay Davenport, who advanced yesterday to a round-of-16 match against Elena Dementieva, had her take on the affair.
"It was pretty crazy [Thursday] with Safin," she said. "I thought it was a little uncalled for, the point penalty. It was a great match."
The Grand Slam supervisors apparently agreed with Davenport, announcing last night that Safin been fined $500 (U.S.) for his racquet abuse but nothing for sliding down his shorts.
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