Last week we were the first to write about Fabrice Santoro and how this would be his last French Open at Roland Garros. Fabrice Santoro, nicknamed the Magician for his habit of mystifying bigger and stronger opponents, is proudly preparing to open his bag of tricks for his 20th and final French Open show. The Frenchman, who will retire at the end of the year, will extend his record of appearances at grand-slam events to 67 in the May 24-June 7 claycourt tournament.
The 36-year-old Frenchman played only eight minutes Wednesday before completing a first-round loss to Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. The match had been suspended Tuesday because of darkness.
“When I started my career on court No. 10 in 1989, I did not imagine at all that I would hold the microphone in my hands 20 years later in front of you,” Santoro said to the crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen. “Those were extraordinary and fantastic years that I will never forget.”
Santoro has played in a record 67 Grand Slam tournaments, making the fourth round three times — at the French Open in 1991 and 2001 and at the Australian Open in 1999.
“Twenty years. That counts for something in a lifetime,” Santoro said. “It has been a long road, a fantastic career. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot.”
Santoro and Rochus started their match Tuesday, but it was suspended with the Belgian leading 5-3 in the fourth set. The pair came back out onto the court after top-ranked Dinara Safina’s easy win and finished the match quickly.
“I’m saying to myself that the story is over, that a page is being turned,” Santoro said. “I will no longer be on court next year. But I think that it is time to go.”
Former world number one Marat Safin has failed to win back-to-back matches in nine of his last 10 tournaments, often perishing despite being in a winning position. This has lead his sister to have a few quiet words in the press and insist he put his whole heart into playing tennis or quit. Im not really sure it was her place to say anything and Im sure if my little sister mentioned something like this I would tell her to shutup.
The 29-year-old was knocked out of last week’s Rome Masters in the first round by Tommy Robredo after throwing away a 6-2 4-1 lead and Safina suggested her brother should hang up his rackets immediately if he is unable to turn around his form. “He knows he’s going to retire (at the end of) this year, so it’s tough,” Safina told reporters at the Italian Open on Monday. I would say that if you want to retire, either you do it or you play. He doesn’t. So he should make a decision if he wants to play or if he wants to retire. He was supposed to (have) already retired last year and he’s still going. He’s a little bit unpredictable.”
Former French Open finalist Guillermo Coria retired from tennis at age 27 on Tuesday.
Coria, a finalist for Roland Garros in 2004 and formerly ranked third in the world, said he had been considering stepping down from the sport for months.
“I didn’t feel like competing anymore,” Coria said in statements published on the Argentine Tennis Association’s Web site. “I’ve made the decision I will not play again.”
Coria won nine titles during his career, reaching his peak in 2004, when he lost in the French Open final to Gaston Gaudio, catapulting him to third in the world rankings.
Coria’s decline began a year later after he won the Umag tournament — his last title.
“In 2005 I began to feel less and less like competing. My passion just wasn’t the same and it’s impossible to do things well when it’s like that. In this sport, you have to be at 100 percent,” added Coria, who is currently ranked 672.
Coria turned pro in 2000 at age 18 and was suspended in 2001 for two years. But the ATP reduced the penalty to seven months after a lab test showed the multivitamin he ingested was tainted with steroids. In June 2007, after claiming he’d lost a potential $10 million in earnings, Coria settled a lawsuit with the New Jersey-based maker of the multivitamin.
In 2003 he won three tournaments in three weeks, and by the end he was South America’s highest-ranked player. He was also the first Argentine in 21 years to reach the season-ending Masters Cup.
Coria’s last tournament was in March at a challenger in Bangkok, his first event in eight months. He lost in the first round.
“I’m very happy with the decision I’ve taken,” he said, “since I have new projects and I will be able to spend more time with my family.”
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman has bowed out of professional tennis after a glittering 17 year career that earned him nine Grand Slam doubles titles.
Bjorkman, 36, was treated to a special ceremony at Qi Zhong Stadium after he and partner Kevin Ullyett were knocked out of the Tennis Masters Cup doubles.
“They reminded me a little bit that this is obviously maybe my last match,” said Bjorkman, who noticed preparations for the farewell ceremony during the match.
“You know, I was trying to do everything possible to stay alive one more day, or maybe two.”
Bjorkman won all four doubles Grand Slams as well as the 1998 Davis Cup with Sweden and also reached the 1997 US Open singles semi-final and the last four at Wimbledon just two years ago.
Bjorkman and Ullyett fell to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski as the Swede failed in his bid for a third year-end title.
“I still think it’s great to end my career in the biggest event of the year, even if I would have gone further. But you can’t have everything,” he said.
“I’ve been mentally prepared for this because I’m mentally very ready to retire. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to play for so long.”
Bjorkman, who will now concentrate on editing a Swedish tennis magazine, cited the 1997 US Open loss to Britain’s Greg Rusesdski as his biggest regret.
“Obviously losing to Greg Rusedski in the semi-final was a tough loss because I think that was a chance for me maybe to go all the way,” he said.
