Safin marches on in Thailand

Retiring former world number one Marat Safin showed there is still life in him yet as he overcame fifth seed Phillipp Petzschner in their first-round meeting at the Thailand Open today.

The 29-year-old Russian is winding down his career after announcing his intention to retire at the end of the year, and showed he is still a capable threat with a 6-2 3-6 6-1 victory in 97 minutes.