Marat Safin loses in the first round of his final US Open

In the year 2000 a young Russian player named Marat Safin, upset the tennis world, by dethroning the king of the US Open Pete Sampras, in straight sets. At the time, Safin, was new to the tour and looked to be a very promising player of the future. 9 years later, a grizzled veteran emerged on court, worn out from his surgeries and time spent playing, Safin, had declared this would be his last US Open. His opponent, was Jurgen Melzer. Melzer, had beaten Safin in 3 of their 4 career meetings and despite his lack of achievements at the majors, he was still the favorite in their match. Safin, got off to a powerful start easily taking the first set from Melzer, but Melzer rallied back hard and used his superior fitness and good shot making to win the second and third sets. In the fourth set Safin, tried his best to stay with Melzer, and he was able to keep the set level until he served at 4 games all. Melzer, sensed a weakness and came up with a few extraordinary shots to break Safin. Melzer, then proceeded to serve out the set, both wining the match and ending Safin's career at the majors. Melzer, won their match 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

Marat's, career has had a lot of ups and downs. Some people think that he never lived up to his full potential and that's probably true, especially, because of his injuries. However I feel that he's had a solid career for the most part. Safin, made four grand slam finals and won 2 of them. He also managed to win 5 masters series and made 27 finals throughout his career.

Even if he had been injury free I'm not convinced that he would have been able to win any more slams. Half of his career was during the Federer Nadal era and it's unlikely that he would have been able to break that up and steal a few majors from them, except for the one in 2005.

I think Marat Safin, has a lot to be proud of. He's been able to hold his own against the best players in the world and on his best days, he was capable of beating them. He'll definitely be missed but it's obvious he's ready to go, I hope he finds something else that he enjoys doing to replace tennis.