Wednesday 19 September Dear fans I am writing this letter on behalf of Marat who has been in touch with me in the last 48 hours and asked me to pass on this message to you all. As you know Marat has taken an interesting step because of various reasons which he explained in his letter to you last week. And it has been an adventure - doing his acclimatisation climb and getting used to all that is part of climbing mountains. The delegation has reached the next height of moving to the base camp for Cho-Oyu and at this stage Marat has realised several points. First of all Marat realised that this climb is a very serious challenging issue and not just an adventure. He loves the experience and is fully into it but realises that it has to be treated with great caution and respect. And the next step is a very big one indeed. Talking to me and to the people he is closest to in the delegation and his coach via satellite phone - he has decided that the smartest and bravest decision for him is to step down and to start a very long 5 day trip back to travel down the mountains and back to Moscow. In Moscow he will meet next week with Hernan Gumy and after a week recovering  from the altitude, he is meant to start practising again in about 2 weeks time. The wrist is well rested and all being well he will hopefully play again in Madrid. Marat doesn't believe he will be ready in time for the Kremlin Cup although he would like very much to play there. He needs time to recover from what has been an exhausting experience. From my conversations with him I was happy to discover that he has had a tremendous time and it was a fascinating experience. Now it would be Marat's main concern to be healthy and play professional tennis again soon as he misses it very much. We can soon expect to see Marat back on the circuit hungry for success and with a new fresh look at tennis. I know it is very important for Marat to pass this message on to his fans and to say they will now be able to see him in the last part of the Indoor season and I can do this with delight. Marat wants to thank all the great and amazing people in the delegation and his wishes that they will complete the challenge to the end. While Marat is starting his long trip back - his fellow Russians will be playing in the DC semi finals against Germany and he sends wishes to them from the bottom of his heart for great success. Best Regards Amit