Never again, says Safin

RUSSIAN 19th seed Marat Safin crashed out of Wimbledon in his tournament opener yesterday – and then vowed he would never return to the All England Club.

He was defeated 4-6 7-5 6-3 7-6 (7-1) by countryman and tournament debutant Dmitry Tursunov despite winning the first set and enjoying a blistering start to the second.

But Safin, watched by former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, suffered yet another of the lapses in concentration that have plagued his career and Tursunov took full advantage.

“I didn’t feel comfortable out there. I don’t like playing on grass because it doesn’t feel like I’m moving. It’s a nightmare and after a while I just get bored and give up,” said Safin.

“I’m giving up on Wimbledon. It’s definitely not the tournament for me. I have to admit I hate it, I hate the surface. It’s the same for everyone but Ifind it very difficult to adjust my game to it.”

Mark Philippoussis enjoyed a better start to his Wimbledon campaign with a routine 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory over Christophe Rochus.

Wayne Ferreira claimed a place in the history books with his first round match against Ivan Ljubicic making him the first man to appear in 55 successive Grand Slam events.

The South African, who is to retire in September after an epic 15-year professional career, overcame 28th seed Ljubicic 5-7 7-6 7-5 6-2.

Spanish ninth seed Carlos Moya made hard work of his match against Olivier Patience of France. Patience, a qualifier ranked 93 in the world, held Moya to 2-2 but then suffered a dramatic collapse in the final set as his Spanish opponent triumphed 6-4 3-6 7-5 6-7 (6-8) 6-1.

Tim Henman’s frustration was plain to see, and hear, as he scraped past Spanish debutant Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo. A line judge reported Henman to the umpire for swearing at the start of the fourth set as the fifth seed looked anything but a serious contender for the title.

Ramirez Hidalgo had never set foot on a grass court until two days ago but took the opening set 6-4 against the four-time semi-finalist.

The 26-year-old from Alicante, without a single win in any Grand Slam event, was then only denied taking the second set tie-break by a fortunate Henman return which hit the line, before the British number one levelled the match.

Henman then took the next two sets 6-4 6-2 to complete a nerve-wracking victory.