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  • Davis Cup: Safin Storms Back to Stun Berdych

    4/11/08 6:17 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Marat Safin overcomes a recent slump and a two-set deficit to stun Tomas Berdych in the first singles rubber between Russia and the Czech Republic. The epic win gives Russia an important 1-0 lead in the Davis Cup quarterfinal tie.

    Marat Safin has never been known for mental strength. He's never been known for a fighting spirit during tough times. Recently he has not even been known for winning. In a shocking performance that lasted nearly four hours on Friday, however, Safin will be remembered for all three of those things. The Russian gave his team a critical 1-0 lead in its Davis Cup quarterfinal clash with the Czech Republic by storming back from two sets down to defeat Tomas Berdych 6-7(5), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

    For a while the same old Safin was on display. In the first set he served at just 46 percent rate--despite firing nine aces--and committed 20 unforced errors. He managed to take the first set into a tiebreaker as neither player could break serve, but also in typical Safin fashion, he could not play the big points as well as Berdych and fell seven points to five.

    In a second set that at the time seemed like an absolute must win for him, Safin failed to turn his game around. He sprayed 19 errors as opposed to just nine winners and his 0-for-5 break-point conversion ratio brought his total to an abysmal 0-for-11 over the first two sets. That allowed Berdych's lone break of serve in the second frame of play to be enough for the Czech to seize a seemingly insurmountable two sets to love advantage.

    Safin has been known to throw in the towel when he falls behind in matches, but on this day, he did nothing of the sort. For that Safin deserves all the credit in the world, although the raucous Russian crowd crammed inside Moscow's Small Sports Arena “Luzhniki” deserves some credit as well. The fans simply would not let Safin quit, and their man responded.

    Suddenly, and out of nowhere, Safin's long lost game rounded into form at the most crucial of moments. Needing to win the last three sets of the match, Safin took it one step at a time and cleaned up his game remarkably in the third frame. He put in 79 percent of his first serves, blasted six aces, committed a mere five unforced errors, and converted the one break chance he saw. Safin lost just four points on serve in five service games and took the set in just 28 minutes. The fourth set featured another near-flawless display by the Russian, while a dropoff in Berdych's form allowed Safin to take the set with even greater ease.

    Safin kept up the momentum by breaking his opponent early in the decisive fifth set. Not surprisingly, however, he was not going to make closing this contest out look easy. Instead, Safin made the Russian faithful sweat it out until the long-awaited ending. Serving for the match at 5-4, he understandably started feeling the pressure and a few errors followed by a Berdych backhand down-the-line winner gave the No. 9 player in the world a break point. At the most crucial time of the afternoon, however, Safin came up with his 29th and final ace to erase Berdych's last opportunity to stay in the match.

    Two points later, one of the most improbably wins of this entire 2008 tennis season became a reality.

    “It was a very important match for me as in the recent months I failed to win a single match,” said Safin after giving the Russians a 1-0 lead that was later erased when Radek Stepanek defeated Igor Andreev. “I did not expect to win the match of such a high level against a top 10 player who is in his best form. This win means a lot for me.”

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Comments

wow that's an incredible result...first decent result of the year for Safin surely......what a pick from Russia's eccentric team captain...does he have a crystal ball or something ?? he keeps upcoming up with these oddball selections in Davis Cup and they always pay up trumps.....this time he leaves out Davydenko who's just won Miami and is their best clay player for Safin who's barely won a match all year !!

DavidC , 4/11/08 11:31 PM



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