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Safin fades in third round at Nasdaq-100 Open
Marat Safin threw, kicked and cursed his racket, then later conceded the problem was operator error.
Bedeviled by his game just two months after winning the Australian Open, the volatile Russian lost 7-6 (6), 6-1 to Dominik Hrbaty in the third round of the Nasdaq-100 Open.
Safin, ranked fourth, became progressively more discouraged as his match progressed Sunday. He made no move to return Hrbaty's final shot, an ace down the middle.
"When I'm playing bad, I'm playing really bad," Safin said. "There's nothing I can do. Serve doesn't work. Backhand doesn't go the way it should be. And of course the forehand struggles. With this kind of game, it's difficult to beat anybody."
Safin committed 33 unforced errors and hit just 11 winners. He's the only player to beat Roger Federer in the past seven months, but since earning his second Grand Slam title in January, Safin has played three tournaments and failed to put together back-to-back victories at any of them.
He's accustomed to spring swoons, and at Key Biscayne his career record is a modest 6-7.
"Normally this month I never play well," he said. "So for me it's nothing new."
Late March usually brings out the best in three-time defending champion Serena Williams but she needed 90 minutes to beat 17-year-old Israeli qualifier Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-3. The scrappy Peer delighted the stadium crowd by repeatedly chasing down shots.
"She was really gutsy," said Williams, seeded third. "I wasn't used to playing a person like that. It was a totally different game for me. She gets a lot of balls back, and she doesn't hit with a lot of pace."
On another humid day, with temperatures reaching 87 degrees, the other top women moved quickly into the fourth round. Top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, No. 2 Maria Sharapova, No. 8 Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne won in straight sets.
No. 13 Ivan Ljubicic, a hero in Croatia's Davis Cup victory over the United States three weeks ago, edged American Vince Spadea 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3).
Ljubicic is 26-7 this year and has already reached four finals. He was startled shortly before the match to open his locker and discover French player Michael Llodra inside — naked.
"He said, `I'm trying to get positive energy from you. You're winning a lot of matches this year,'" Ljubicic said. "Now when I open my locker, I'm opening really slowly. I don't know what I'm going to find in there."
Former No. 1-ranked Juan Carlos Ferrero reached the fourth round by sweeping Igor Andreev 6-4, 6-3. Fernando Verdasco, who eliminated No. 3 Andy Roddick, lost to fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-2.
The No. 19-seeded Henin-Hardenne, playing in her first tournament since the U.S. Open, needed just 58 minutes to beat Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3, 6-2. The three-time Grand Slam champion had been sidelined by a virus and knee injury.
Mauresmo defeated Anna Smashnova 6-2, 6-1, and Sharapova beat Marissa Irvin 6-2, 6-0. Three-time champion Venus Williams beat Fabiola Zuluaga 6-2, 6-0, and Clijsters won her 10th match in a row, sweeping No. 12 Nathalie Dechy 6-0, 6-2.
No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova, the U.S. Open champion, and No. 4 Elena Dementieva also advanced in straight sets. No. 11 Patty Schnyder lost to qualifier Catalina Castano 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.
The elimination of Safin left the tournament without three of the top four players in the men's rankings. No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt withdrew before the event with a toe injury, and Roddick lost his opening match. Against Hrbaty, Safin fought a losing battle to keep his composure. He buried his face in his hands after one error, and when Hrbaty took a 6-5 lead in the tiebreaker, Safin slammed his racket to the hardcourt. After inspecting the racket and finding it intact, he smacked a 135-mph service winner. But two points later he pushed a tentative backhand wide to lose the set, then booted the racket across the concrete. "It's difficult to deal with the situation when you are playing bad and you are losing," Safin said. Hrbaty, seeded 26th, has seen the act before. He's 7-6 against Safin. "He showed a lot of frustration," Hrbaty said. "You can't say he didn't fight. But he just played really bad."
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