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SPORTS> Tennis
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Safin siblings, Federer win at Open
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-22 11:52 MELBOURNE -- The Safin family surged through the Australian Open draw Wednesday, women's third seed Dinara and men's former world No 1 Marat sliding into round three.
Big brother Safin thundered through to a mouth-watering showdown with second seed Roger Federer after he crushed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, while Safina, chasing her maiden grand slam title, beat fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-7, 6-3, 6-0. Federer stormed to a 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Russia's Evgeny Korolev. Twice runner-up here and champion in 2005, Safin is eagerly anticipating his clash with the 13-time grand slam champion.
"We know each other pretty well. He knows how to play against me, I know how to play against him. Very dangerous "Unfortunately I didn't win a lot of matches against him, but I'm looking forward. It's another chance. I have nothing to lose. I'm going to go for it. Whatever comes, comes." Federer was equally keen to clash, even though he holds a commanding 9-2 lead in their head-to-heads. "It's going to be a nice match for sure," he said. "We have a history. We have played a few times. "We've played in majors before and played some good matches before... We go way back. "Him, of course, being a former No 1, same for me, former grand slam champion, it's an intriguing matchup." Federer and Safin were joined in the winners' circle by the Serbian trio of Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and defending men's champion Novak Djokovic. Djokovic eased into the third round with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-3 win over France's Jeremy Chardy. The 21-year-old world No 3 struggled initially against Chardy in an even first set, breaking just once in the 12th game, before he romped away with the second and third.
"I'm playing better and better which is a very encouraging fact for me," Djokovic said. "I really stepped it up and played pretty good in the second and third set especially." But Argentina's David Nalbandian became the highest ranked men's player to be eliminated. "I don't think I played bad, but every set I was starting a break down and had to fight from that and come back," the 10th seed told reporters after he was beaten 6-4, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 by Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun in the second-round. "He played, I don't know if it was perfect, but he played at a very good level." The Argentine squandered six break points in the final game but added that even if he had converted one of those chances, he did not know if he could have won. "I was still a break down. At the time I was a double break down," he said. "You never know. Things can happen. "If I had broken in that moment we were still in the fight and you never know." Lu's first match point in that final game went begging when Nalbandian's shot was ruled in by Hawkeye. Over the next 10 minutes the Argentine manufactured several chances to try to reduce the gap, but each time Lu battled back. "I didn't think I have to win (that game), but I was worried about my body," said Lu. "I was really struggling with my body, and my legs starting to have some problem. (So) I told myself I need to close this game, because I don't want to have problems serving (at) 5-4." Lu said he had deliberately attacked Nalbandian's backhand on every serve of the six break points. "Everybody thinks Nalbandian is (one of) the best backhand players (and) I just guessed he would be ready for his forehand returns, so I changed my mind and said, 'okay, I go to his backhand all the time'." The 25-year-old sealed the win on his second match point with a forehand winner after three hours, 55 minutes. The victory moved Lu into the third round of a grand slam for the first time and he will meet Spain's Tommy Robredo, who thrashed Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-3 ,6-0. "I'm 61 in the world and I have no pressure. I just (went) on the court and played my game," said Lu. "Really, for me, it's big step to be the third round in a grand slam .... I'm really happy." In the women's tournament, top seed Jankovic beat Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 7-5 and fifth-seeded Ivanovic beat Italy's Alberta Brianti 6-3, 6-2. "She's not an easy opponent. She can be very dangerous," Ivanovic said of Brianti. "There is still some areas I have to work on and improve," added the 21-year-old, a beaten finalist last year. In the night session, former world No 4 Jelena Dokovic thrilled a seething mass of green and gold local fans by beating Russian 17th seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. Agencies |
