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Safin lives to play another day

Mon 9th, November 2009

Paris, France (Sports Network) - Playing in his final career ATP event, former world No. 1 Marat Safin barely came up an opening-round winner Monday at the Paribas Masters, the final Masters tournament of the year.

The two-time major champion Safin, who plans on retiring after this tournament, held off Frenchman Thierry Ascione 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) on Day 2 at Palais Omnisports, where the big Russian titled in 2000, 2002 and 2004. Safin saved three match points to stave off Ascione and extend his career for at least one more round.

The 29-year-old Safin is now 24-4 lifetime at this indoor event.

The wild card Safin's second-round opponent on Wednesday will be this week's fifth seed, powerful U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.

In a battle of former Top-10 stars, Croat Ivan Ljubicic handled veteran French crowd favorite Sebastien Grosjean 7-6 (7-2), 6-4. The wild card Grosjean captured this event eight years ago.

In some other first-round play, 6-foot-9 American John Isner, like Safin on Day 2, saved three match points before sneaking past Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla 4-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-5; 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic topped Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (7-3), 6-4; and capable Czech Tomas Berdych dismissed French qualifier Vincent Millot 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Berdych captured this event back in 2005.

Serbian Viktor Troicki was leading French favorite Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-4) 3-0 on Monday when Mathieu retired with a right calf injury.

Additional wins came for Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot, Italian Andreas Seppi and Spaniard Albert Montanes.

The first round will conclude and the second round will get underway here on Tuesday, including matches for former Paris Indoors champion Nikolay Davydenko and reigning titlist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. A sixth-seeded Davydenko, who titled here in 2006, will take on German Benjamin Becker, while the French favorite Tsonga, seeded eighth this week, will encounter Montanes.

The former Aussie Open runner-up Tsonga topped Argentine David Nalbandian in last year's Paris finale.

This week's top seeds are Wimbledon and French Open champion Roger Federer, Aussie Open titlist Rafael Nadal, last week's Basel winner Novak Djokovic and last week's Valencia titlist Andy Murray. Djokovic upset Federer in Sunday's finale in Federer's hometown of Basel.

This is the final tournament before the season-ending ATP Tour World Finals, which takes place from November 22-29 in London. Two spots remain open for that exclusive eight-man field.