Los Angeles, July 30 (DPA) Marat Safin holds no regrets on ending his tennis career in November despite reaching the quarter-finals of the Los Angeles Open for a third consecutive year with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

'I'll need to take six months off [when he finishes at Paris Bercy in the autumn] just [to] realise how things have changed, that I have no more tennis career,' said the 29-year-old double Grand Slam champion and former number one Wednesday.

'I need to learn about life after tennis,' said the 12-year ATP veteran. 'There will be no more match points, no more deuces, it will be something different.'

Safin is to finally get a day off Thursday after playing four matches in three days including a Monday night exhibition which he won over Pete Sampras.

He will face a quarter-final Friday against two-time champion and top seed Tommy Haas, who started his week with a defeat of American Jesse Levine 6-1, 6-3 as he played his first match since losing in the Wimbledon semi-finals a month ago to Roger Federer.

Charismatic Safin said that he won't be bothered by leaving a sport which he says has grown tougher and less friendly over the past six or seven years.

'It's too professional, it's not fun like it was before,' said the number 55 who won 15 titles. 'Nobody is friends with anybody, everyone travels with his group, there is no more friendship like when I could hang out with [Patrick] Rafter or [Mark] Philippoussis.