Safin stuns champion in voyage of self-belief
From Neil Harman, Tennis Correspondent in Melbourne

AT THE final changeover, Roger Federer changed to an all-white strip, as if hoping that, by wearing the favoured Wimbledon colours, he would find the inspiration to hold off the Russian bear at his throat. It did not work. The all-conquering giant of tennis completed his semi-final yesterday in a heap at the back of the court with Marat

Safin ready to take a final swipe of his right claw.
Even with three quarters of the court at a player’s mercy and Federer on the ground, to beat the best player in the world you have to put the ball away and Safin had made a hash of that for much of the preceding 20 minutes. Chances had come and gone, the demons were probably playing inside his head, but Safin believed that this was his moment and that, in the words of Andre Agassi, “someone had to beat Federer sometime”.

No one expected the men’s championship at Melbourne Park to reach its climax without its main character, who has strode casually and clinically to a level of domination of the game that has not affected one iota his honourable disposition.

As the two greeted each other at the end of four hours and 28 minutes of classical cut and thrust, a shaken Federer still managed a smile. He was hurting terribly. Defeats are not part of his staple and to lose 5-7, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6, 9-7 in the semi-finals of what was expected to be his third grand-slam title in succession did not make for easy digestion.

Walking off, to applause from a full house that stayed, entranced, until 12.20 in the morning, Federer felt a tap on the shoulder from Safin. It was an acknowledgement of one man’s respect for the other and an understanding that it could have gone the way of the defending champion.

Federer had a single match point, at 6-5 in the fourth-set tie-break, when he had played a delightful drop shot on to which the onrushing Safin got enough of his strings to float up a lob. Such is the speed off the mark of the Swiss, it looked as though he would have time to run around the ball and, perhaps, throw up a lob of his own.

Instead, he tried an audacious shot through his legs, as perfected the previous night by David Nalbandian. The choice of stroke at such a moment caused perplexity among his followers — could this very unarrogant man have succumbed to conceit?

He was not to come as close again. Safin, on the other hand, had six match points before he closed out a victory that was sweet for him but even sweeter, one expects, for Peter Lundgren, the Swede who was at Federer’s side for five years until the axe came down on him at the end of 2003.

Under Lundgren’s patient control, emphasising to Safin the need to sustain his selfcontrol if his gifts are to be fully exploited, the Russian, who was 25 yesterday, has the game to be every bit as much champion’s material as Federer.

One has only to recall the way he blew past Pete Sampras to win the 2000 US Open to appreciate his talents and wonder why it has taken him so long to look as if he would make the most of them. In 2002 and 2004, Safin reached the Australian Open final, losing first to Thomas Johansson, a Swede who wore him down, then Federer last year, crumbling away after he had lost the first set on a tie-break. He now awaits this morning’s meeting of Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, guaranteed to be either the fan’s favourite or the most hated Russian in Melbourne. “But whatever happens, I know the people here appreciate what I do because look at how they stayed tonight,” he said. “I hope they could understand how difficult it was for me to beat Roger, it is like a brain fight.”

Jim Courier, the former world No 1 and resident courtside interviewer, decided that the occasion warranted giving Safin a hug, yet he had never lost a five-set match here. Perhaps he should have saved that for the beaten champion, who, amazingly, had never won one, but Federer was already back in the locker-room.

Federer, who complained of blistered feet and an irritated nerve in his serving arm, may not have been physically 100 per cent, but he had given his all. “At least I gave it a fight,” he said. “I had break points and love-30s in the fifth set. I surprised myself with coming back because he has a great serve, a great game. I didn’t think I would come back, but he gave me some second chances and I couldn’t take them. I was closer in the fourth than I was in the fifth.

“I’m living my whole life with pressure, this is nothing different. This was a match like every other match. He’s one of the best in the world and I like to play him because of the way he is on the court. I told myself to try everything to win and have two days off, but it’s not to be.”

Federer will come back a stronger person, a problem for the rest of the game. He has added new dimensions to his game and his backhand volley is much improved, a weapon that will come in extremely useful when he reaches the grass-court period of the season, where he really wants to shine.

If he looked gloomy yesterday, it is nothing compared with the way he would be if this result had happened in SW19.