My Fav News Report of the day
Seventh Heaven for Safin
Thursday, 27 January, 2005
by Damian Glass
Marat Safin has taken seven match points - and saved one in the fourth set - to send world No.1 Roger Federer out of the Centenary Australian Open with a remarkable win in an epic five-set semi-final, winning 5-7 6-4 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 9-7.
The Russian No.4 seed came back from two-sets-to-one down to upset the hot tournament favourite on Rod Laver Arena, becoming the first man through to Sunday night's men's final.
It was the first time Federer had lost to a top 10 player since October 2003 and the first time he had lost a match since the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
The defending Australian Open champion looked to be through to the final when he led the fourth set tie-break 5-2. Remarkably, Safin fought back to level the tie-break 5-5 but the Swiss then brought up his only match point with a delicate drop shot.
Federer was desperately close to winning the match after a superb drop volley but Safin somehow chased the ball down. He lobbed Federer but the Swiss ran back, only for his between-the-legs return to go into the net.
From that point, Safin won the next two points to win the tie-break and send the match into a deciding fifth set.
Before this semi-final, Federer had won only one of six five-set matches on Rod Laver Arena while Safin had never lost a five-set match at the venue.
The Russian began the fifth set looking as if he was going to keep his winning record on Rod Laver Arena in tact and, in the fifth game, he broke Federer to take a 3-2 lead.
Games then went with serve until Safin served for the match for the first time at 5-3 but Federer saved two match points to break back.
At 4-5, Federer saved another match point on his own serve. Trailing 6-7, the Swiss maestro saved two more, displaying the hallmarks of a true champion.
Just when it looked like Safin was going to rue not having taken advantage of five match points, he held serve to take an 8-7 lead and then, in Federer's next service game, the Russian brought up another two match points at 15-40.
Stunningly, Federer served an ace to save the sixth match point but on the seventh match point for Safin, the Russian's return forced Federer out of court allowing the two-time runner-up at Melbourne Park to dispatch a forehand into the open court to finally take the match and move into another final at Melbourne Park.
Earlier, Safin had begun the match knowing his serve was going to have to stand up for him to have any chance of winning and in the first set it did, serving at 73% at an average speed of 212km/hour. The problem for the Russian was that Federer is as good as anyone at returning serve. However, at the end of the set, it wasn't Safin's serve that let him down.
Trailing 5-6 and serving to stay in the set, Safin made six unforced errors in the game to hand the set to Federer 7-5.
Despite losing the opening set, Safin was forcing Federer to play the sort of tennis that had gone unsighted in the tournament so far. Unlike others before him who had no answers to Federer's serve and superior baseline game, Safin's philosophy was producing some uncharacteristic errors from the Swiss.
Safin's tactics drew mistakes from Federer who, unusually, was not in control of a match. In the first set Safin made five more unforced errors than Federer but in the second, Federer made 14 to Safin's five.
It came as no surprise when Safin broke Federer's serve to lead 2-1 early in the second set. In particular, Safin attacked Federer's backhand with success as he continued to thwart the Swiss from the back of the court.
Federer had a chance to get back into the set holding a break point at 3-4 but Safin served his way out of trouble and went on to win the set 6-4 and level the match at one set apiece.
In the important third set, Federer surrended a 2-0 lead and was two break points down at 4-4. But, as was the case in the first set, Safin could not hold his serve at 5-6 and lost it 5-7.
At the start of the fourth set, it was going to take a Herculean effort from Safin to break his hoodoo against Federer, who had previously won six of the seven matches between the two players.
Little did Safin know of the drama that lay ahead - that he was about to play one of the greatest semi-finals on Rod Laver Arena (and perhaps the match of his life) to finally defeat Federer again.
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Safin took 7 match points to defeat the world No.1
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The fifth set went for 80 minutes
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Federer won 201 points, Safin 194
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The Swiss had one match point in the 4th set tie-break
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Unforced errors: Federer 59, Safin 60
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The match went for 4 hours and 28 minutes
Ange
1:55 pm
