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10/11/08 2:22 PM | David Cox
Marat Safin is aiming for his first final of the year against Mischa Zverev, who is in his first career ATP semifinal.
Safin and Zverev have met just the once before, indoors in Bangkok two years ago. It was a serve-dominated match with just two breaks throughout, Safin taking it 7-6, 5-7, 7-5.
This is the time of the year when Zverev tends to rack up most of his points - in both singles and doubles. He won Tokyo with Mikhail Youzhny last week and at the end of last season he took the Dnepropetrovsk Challenger title, beating Dmitry Tursunov in the final.
Zverev hasn't had it easy this week en route to the final, beating fellow lefty Denis Gremelmayr 6-3, 7-6 in round one and then finishing strong to take out Teimuraz Gabashvilli 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in round two before yesterday's dramatic scenes against Victor Troicki, where he rolled off the final six games to reach the semis.
Safin's needed three sets in every single match so far. In true Safin-esque style he looked fairly ordinary against Noam Okun and Julien Benneteau and was quite lucky to get past both players, before suddenly turning it on in style to oust Davydenko yesterday. Safin's first-round match was particularly bizarre, as he turned out to be the only person in the stadium who didn't realize he was a break up in the third and serving for the match, so when he clinched victory he thought the match was still in progress!
Prediction: Safin to still require three sets, but to make the final
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Did you know that... Arnaud Clement and Fabrice Santoro fought during 6 hours and 33 minutes in the longest match ever played, in French Open 2004.
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Marat Safin 
Mischa Zverev 
Kremlin Cup