Marat Safin saved three match points to extend his career by at least one more round Monday, beating French qualifier Thierry Ascione 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3) at the Paris Masters. The 29-year-old Russian, a three-time winner in Paris, is planning to retire after this tournament. He will face fifth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina in the second round. Safin saved the match points by serving three aces when trailing 5-4 in the third set. He closed out the match with a forehand volley on his first match point in the tiebreaker to improve to 24-4 at the Paris Masters, where he won in 2000, ‘02 and ‘04. He broke in the fifth game when Ascione double-faulted and took the first set with a backhand drop volley. After trading breaks in the second set, Safin saved three break points in the sixth game before hitting a forehand long to ultimately force a decider. Safin, former No. 1 who captured the 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open among 15 singles titles, secured his best result this year by reaching the semifinals at St. Petersburg 10 days ago. Tomas Berdych, the 2005 champ, beat French qualifier Vincent Millot 6-3, 7-6 (4) after serving 10 aces and breaking three times The 247th-ranked Millot wasted a 5-2 lead in the second set and his Czech opponent finished the match with an ace on his first match point. Berdych, ranked 20th, will next face 14th-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain. Viktor Troicki of Serbia benefited from Paul-Henri Mathieu's calf injury to advance and will face 13th-seeded Radek Stepanek. Mathieu, who reached the final in Hamburg earlier this year, failed to convert a set point and retired when trailing 7-6 (4), 3-0. “It's a shame because it was very close and I had some good opportunities to break him,” Mathieu said. “But I suddenly felt a pain in my calf after a run and it was difficult for me to keep going.” Andreas Seppi of Italy beat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 6-3, while Ivo Karlovic of Croatia served 21 aces in a 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory over Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay. Lukasz Kubot of Poland defeated Andreas Beck of Germany 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 while Albert Montanes of Spain struggled to beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3). A two-time title winner this year, Montanes will next play defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga retired in the first round of the Valencia Open last week with a wrist injury but is confident he will be able to play before his home crowd. “I played (in training) earlier today and everything went fine,” Tsonga told a news conference. “I'm happy to come back here. I have a lot of good memories.” Tsonga is one of the seven players who can still qualify for this month's 8-man ATP World Tour Finals in London.
