Victorious Safin plays down prospects

Railing against everything from the bumpy grass to the price of strawberries, the doom and gloom afflicting Marat Safin for the best part of a decade has become firmly entrenched in Wimbledon folklore.

Old habits die hard, so the 28-year-old Russian could hardly have been expected to dance the troika around Court One on Wednesday in celebration of his four-set, last-eight victory over Feliciano Lopez.

‘I'm not going to be excited at winning just another match, running around with a big huge smile,’ shrugged Safin, a former two-time Grand Slam champion whose injuries and loss of form have seen him dive to 75th in the world rankings.

‘It's more like a relief that I've made it for the first time in my life to the semi-final of Wimbledon. Of course I'm happy, but it's just a different happiness. It's not the same as when you were 20 years old and you think you are flying.’

Safin's 3-6 7-5 7-6 (7/1) 6-3 success was not without its tribulations. In the 27 minutes prior to a two-hour rain delay, he contrived to lose serve, bounce two racquets into the baseline, and receive a code violation for ball abuse.

Safin added: ‘I was nervous because I wanted to do well. I thought it was my opportunity to get into the semi-finals. It cannot get any better than that. I was way too nervous to perform.’

But once the skies had cleared Safin rallied, saving his best form for the fourth set, in which he broke the big-serving Lopez three times and moved towards his first Wimbledon semi-final appearance at the ninth attempt.

His days as a raging young prospect may have long gone, but Safin is convinced his unlikely return to form in his least favourite tournament can provide the springboard for a climb back up the world rankings.

‘It's a big relief for me that I'm 75 in the world and now I'm going back to the top 50. I'm climbing back. I want to climb back to the top 20. But smiling for the rest of the season, I don't think so. There's a lot of work to do.’

Lopez, an awkward, left-handed serve-volleyer who traditionally saves his best form of the season for SW19, is the kind of player Safin admits gives him nightmares, having beaten him in four of their five previous meetings.

The Spaniard started well under heavy skies, fashioning four break points on the first Safin serve and breaking on the second, prompting the Russian to incur the wrath of the umpire for rocketing a ball high into the sky.

But Safin returned revitalised. Unable to claim back the crucial break to save the first set, he swapped breaks with Lopez early in the second then broke again, crucially, to win the set 7-5.

The third set was an attritional affair, seeing a solitary, unconverted break point on the Safin serve at 4-4, which the Russian saved with an ace, and gruelling baseline rallies which thudded inexorably towards a tie-break.

Safin blazed through the breaker for the loss of a single point and this time capitalised emphatically, double-breaking the flagging Spaniard, and, after failing to serve out for the match,
breaking again to claim his semi-final place.

It was evidently a result the majority of Court One wanted, if only out of compassion for a player who so often has borne the burden of considerable discomfort with the SW19 grass.

On top form, Safin is one of only a handful of players who could trouble his semi-final opponent Roger Federer. But the Russian predictably played down his chances of taking his career resurrection a big step further.

‘I'm playing in the semi-finals but it doesn't mean I have a chance,' shrugged Safin.

‘He's on his way to his sixth title. To beat Federer you have to be like Nadal and run around like a rabbit and hit winners from all over the place.

‘It's my first semi-final, so the levels are a little bit different. It's another chance for me. But I think it's just a little bit too difficult for me to beat him.’