It’s a sad time for tennis. While I know that others are still mourning over Nadal’s decision this season to wear shirts with sleeves, or his recent announcement that he would not be healthy enough to make Wimbledon next week, I’m mourning something else.

You see, this will be Marat Safin’s last season. I know what you’re thinking, “The highly combustible Russian has his moments, but plays erratically. Why should we care?” Yes, he’s a former World No. 1, and a two-time Grand Slam winner, but more importantly, he has a lot of… character, shall we say? His brand of tennis has extremely high entertainment value. I mean, who else on tour is going to pull off the following (from the 2004 French Open, courtesy of the Washington Times) :

And in an inexplicable fit of glee before a packed grandstand at the storied French Open, he dropped his pants.

“It was a great point for me!” Safin explained Friday after a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 6-7, 11-9 second-round victory over Felix Mantilla that took two days to complete. “I felt like pulling my pants down. What’s bad about that?”

And earlier this year at the Hopman Cup, Mr Safin “arrived at the event sporting a bandaged right thumb, two black eyes, a blood-filled left eye and a cut near his right eye, all suffered in a fight several weeks earlier in Moscow.” Despite the injuries, he claimed to have won the fight.

See why those temperamental shoes will be hard to fill?