Game Point: Goodbye, Marat
Game Point is Busted Racquet's roundup of facts, figures and links about the tennis world.
Love -- The Daily Mail reports 10 ATP matches from 2009 are under investigation by the Tennis Integrity Unity because of suspect betting patterns. The specific matches (all first-rounders) are not revealed, but no major player is said to be involved. Most of the games under investigation involved big wagers on a weaker player or mid-match bets on players who are down.
15 -- Rafael Nadal did a favor for a fellow Spainiard today. His defeat of Jo-Wilifried Tsonga in the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters gave Fernando Verdasco the final spot in the eight-man ATP World Tour Championships, to be played later this month in London. Tsonga and Robin Soderling had been fighting for the eighth and final spot in the year-end tournament. The competitors: Roger Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko and Verdasco.
30 -- Just like it was in the final WTA tournament of the year, the No. 1 ranking will be up grabs in the final ATP tournament of the year. A win by Nadal in Paris would put him only 305 points behind Federer for the No. 1 ranking.
40 -- John Newcombe's mustache, just because.
Game -- The tennis career of Marat Safin ended Wednesday with a loss in Paris to U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro. Safin is known best for his temper, carousing, outspokeness and, above all, his underachieving, but the bluster obscures the fact that Safin was pretty damn good, winning two Grand Slams and ascending to No. 1 in 2000. Sure he could have done more, but unlike others who say they have no regrets about unfulfilled promise; when Marat Safin says it, I believe him.
