Marat Safin has assured his younger sister Dinara that he has no plans to retire anytime soon.The big Russian won through his first round match in the French Open today defeating Jean-Rene Lisnard of Monaco 6-7, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 to continue a mild upturn in his dwindling fortunes.He was reminded of his sibling’s recent comments that he had often talked about retirement as his morale slumped on the back of a run of bad defeats earlier this year. “She’s not right,” he said.“I’m still playing, still enjoying, even though I’m in a tough position. A couple months ago I was almost out of the top 100. “I’m still playing, still trying, playing the qualifiers, and now it looks like it’s getting better. “So why to retire when everything is functioning? So I don’t see any of it, and I don’t think I will be retiring pretty soon.”Earlier in the day, his sister Dinara Safina had pleaded with Marat not to quit tennis, insisting that his colourful career was far from over. “He’s retiring every tournament,” smiled Safina. “But then I see him play and I’m like: ‘You play so good. Just keep going’. He’s such a good player.”The former US and Australian Open champion was a semi-finalist here back in 2002, but he has struggled to compete in recent years going out in the first round two years ago and the second round last year. Davydenko up nextNext up will be Davis Cup partner and fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko, and Safin said he would have to produce his best tennis to stand any chance of reaching the third round.“He’s playing his best tennis probably right now. He won Miami. He beat Nadal and some other great players there, so he’s pretty solid,” he said.“Has to be a very good day for me and not really good day for him, and then we have a chance to be even.”
