BREAKING NEWS!!!!!
11.06.06 Marat has had a short haircut!! Not shaved head but definitely very short. Robin Soderling gave him the haircut - seems they were bored and Marat was tired of trying to manage his hair - SO it happened. Marat calls it the start of a new era! He is feeling fine and is in Halle with Peter and his Russian doctor. We await the photos!
After Halle will not play any other tournament but just go straight to Wimbledon to prepare.

Tennis journeyman Wesley Whitehouse is living a dream after pouncing on streaky Russian Marat Safin for a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the third round of the RCA Championships Wednesday.
Bill Scott, July 19, 2006

Tennis journeyman Wesley Whitehouse is living a dream after pouncing on streaky Russian Marat Safin for a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the third round of the RCA Championships Wednesday.

So calm about the impending match was the 27-year-old from South Africa that he paid a charity visit to Riley Children's Hospital only hours before walking onto the court.

That unorthodox preparation method proved to take nothing away from the outsider's winning performance, which left Safin struggling to cope.

"I'm not Andy Roddick or Marat Safin," said Whitehouse, a former junior Wimbledon winner. "I'm a guy ranked between 400 and 500 in the world. It's good with the life that we live to see how others less fortunate deal with things."

At the moment, it looks like karma paid off for the No. 512 Whitehouse, who has now leveled his career record at the ATP level at three wins and three defeats.

"I've been playing well for a few weeks, but I was ready to quit tennis a year ago last April. But I got a new coach who encouraged me to continue. It was a wise decision.

"I've had a lot of challenges in may career, including wrist surgery."

Safin's hardcourt season got off to a difficult and no doubt frustrating start. The former world No.1 with two Grand Slam trophies has endured 11 months of knee injury drama, avoiding surgery but missing months of play from August to February.

"I never felt comfortable on the court. He played well and I was never in the match," Safin said after the match. А где ты был???? Зачем выходить на корт, если в голове другие мысли??

"I returned really well and put pressure on him from the beginning," said Whitehouse. "That was my game plan from the start. You never know with him, he can play really well or really badly."

The South African aims to continue his charmed life when he plays for a Quarterfinal place, his first at this level.

Safin, who sat down in the chair during a hot moment with the chair umpire over a call in the second set, now stands 12-12 on the season.

"This kind of a loss hurts," said Safin. "I don't really know what to do. You can only look for better times. I'm not even close to my tennis."

Two other Russians picked up the slack. No. 7 Dmitry Tursunov moved through when German Benjamin Becker quit with heat exhaustion 6-3, 5-7, 2-1. Igor Kunitsyn beat Germany's Lars Burgsmuller 7-5, 6-2.