Marat Safin played for the fourth time in three days, and had enough energy to defeat Ernests Gulbis 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the L.A. Tennis Open. The tennis pro got a chance to play an exhibition match against Pete Sampras on 7-27-09, beat Robby Ginepri the following night, and teamed up with Igor Kunitsyn to win the first-round doubles match on 7-27-09. Get US Open Tennis tickets and see your favorite player serve for the match. The victory over Gulbis put the two-time Grand Slam champion into his first quarterfinal of the year. The win also gave Safin at least a day off from singles play. He will retire at the end of the year because he thinks he is struggling and not playing well. The athlete said it’s getting tougher and tougher to play his matches.

He finds it difficult to motivate and take care of his body. Safin continued to say that you have to spend a lot of time in the gym and practicing. He said there are so many other things he would like to do and he would like to take a vacation. The tennis player will take half a year just to relax. He said it will be great to realize that he is not a tennis player anymore and that there is a life after tennis. Safin restated he needed to relax and told the press he has been under so much pressure throughout the years. He took a deep breath and said there are no more matches, there are no more match points, and there are no more deuces, and there are no more second serves.

The athlete added that it’s a different way of thinking and he needs the time off to really understand it. With the way he spoke to the press, you think he was ready to retire from tennis today. In the quarterfinals, Safin will face off against two-time champion and top seed Tommy Haas, who triumphed over Jesse Levine 6-1, 6-3. John Isner also moves on to the quarterfinals. He overcame an injury late in the second-set tiebreaker to defeat Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 7-6 (11). Carsten Ball advances to the next round with a 6-4, 1-0 win over number 3 seed Dmitry Tursunov, who could not finish his match in the second set due to a left ankle injury.

The 6-foot-9 Isner twisted his left ankle before he fell on the court. He tried to reverse directions on a forehand that gave Baghdatis an 11-10 lead in the tiebreaker. Baghdatis immediately went over the net to see how his opponent was doing. After several minutes, Isner was back on his feet, but he was limping and couldn’t put much weight on the left ankle and foot while serving. The injury seemed to affect Baghdatis more than Isner. Isner said Baghdatis missed a second-serve return (to make it 11-all), something he hadn’t done at all in the match. Isner also stated that he had to hit a forehand shot as hard as he could and it went in, right off the line.

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