After losing six consecutive first-round matches in a 2003 campaign wrecked by a wrist injury, Safin decided to get fitter than he had ever been and hired veteran conditioner Walt Landers, who has worked with Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and, briefly, Lleyton Hewitt.

"I came to Australia to try to win it, but I didn't expect I was going to be in the final straight away," Safin said after clinching a five-set semi-final win to end Agassi's 26-match winning streak at Melbourne Park late on Thursday night.

" I just wanted to come back really strong after last year – I lost in the first rounds in the four tournaments I played (after a comeback in late September) and I couldn't run. So I just decided to take some time off, train hard and (Landers) couldn't have been any tougher on me.

"Always you have this fear that you'll not be able to come back. But I tried one month of training, to be professional. It's difficult for me to stay focused in one place and after a while when you don't play tennis the muscles completely lose their power.

"But now I have confidence that I'm physically OK."

Safin, ranked No. 86, took a day off yesterday and hopes the fruits of his labours of his December training camp will see him fight the final out despite a 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 1-6, 6-3 semi-final defeat of Agassi which stretched his time played in the tournament to 18hr50min.

Landers said he was surprised by Safin's application, considering his well-deserved reputation for liking alcohol and a busy social life.

"I never thought in one month he could change completely so many things. He really enjoyed it. This was the outstanding surprise for me," said Landers, a Polish masseur who has lived in the US for 25 years.

"All December he ran hills in Monte Carlo, ran on the track, did gym and medicine ball work.

"He had the evening with his girlfriend and then he was back running and working the next day. He worked for six days a week and had the Sunday off."

Safin discovered two days before his departure from Moscow for Perth's Hopman Cup that his passport was missing, presumed stolen.

"He had two passports and the one that was stolen had an Australian visa. The tournament director, Paul McNamee, was able to help us and managed all the things (to obtain a visa for his arrival in Perth) and he really needed the matches he got there," Safin's coach Russian Denis Golovanov said.

Reformed party boy Safin said he would have a few beers to wind down from his Agassi win, as he did after his 24th birthday win over Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals.

Safin has had his new Russian girlfriend Dasha and his mother Rausa Islanova, his coach until he was 13, at his matches where he had a group of blonde fans at his past two Australian Open bids.

The Russian's task after the Australian Open is to maintain the fierce will to win. He said he had valuable experience from his 2002 Melbourne Park final loss to underdog Thomas Johansson.

"I couldn't play my best tennis then. I was too nervous, under too much pressure," Safin said.

"I'm full of confidence and it's going to be a completely different story, I hope."

And during the most inspired fortnight of his career, which culminates in the final against newly crowned world No.1 Roger Federer today, the maternal pride of mum and former coach Rausa Islanova could not be greater as she watches her sometimes temperamental but frequently brilliant son aim for his second grand slam title.

Rausa has kept a low profile during her visit to Melbourne, joining daughter Dinara Safina the 17-year-old world No.48 and winner of two career titles plus Safin's brunette girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, and the player's coach Denis Golovanov and fitness trainer in the guest box for matches.

The viewing for family and friends was perfect on Thursday night as Safin, a 193 centimetre hunk of power, used his big game to batter Andre Agassi in five sets, ending the American's 26-match winning streak in Melbourne and putting the 2000 US Open champion from Moscow into his third grand slam final.

Two years ago, a less motivated Safin lost the title match to Swedish outsider Thomas Johansson . The ice-blonde Slavic beauties who were gracing the Safin entourage were clearly a pleasant distraction from the more pressing duties of properly preparing for and winning matches.

Stories of wild nights, a few beers and perhaps less than perfect attention to training similar to those that surfaced around Mark Philippoussis this year spiced up the gossip agenda but did little for Safin, who lost in four sets to the Swede.

But after a wrist injury last year that took almost 12 months to heal properly, a new Safin has emerged at the first grand slam of the season.

Big Red said a month of full-on fitness training at his Monte Carlo base with journeyman trainer Walt Landers helped resurrect his game.

At the Australian Open last year, Safin tore ligaments in his left wrist in the first round, which eventually forced him to pull out before a third-round encounter with eventual runner-up Rainer Schuettler.

The wrist drama limited his play to just 13 events and he did not appear at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.

His results from April 28 until the end of the year totalled six first-round defeats.

But now the revitalised world No.86 with a bullet is hoping his mum can at least sit back and enjoy the fruits of her early labours on a tennis court in the mid-1980s, when the former Soviet Union was unravelling and life in Moscow was becoming even more of a strain.

"She's just a mother [not a coach]," Safin said in the lead-up to his showdown with Federer, the third man in five months to capture the ATP top spot and the 23rd since rankings began three decades ago.

"I hope she's enjoying, I don't want her to suffer or give me any advice.

"She's here just to enjoy the tennis of her son, just to be proud.

"I hope she's proud of me and what I'm doing.

"I don't want her to get crazy in the matches because I'm losing, not winning, not playing bad or good.

"No matter what result I get, she has to be happy."

Safin said Rausa's groundwork groomed him for greatness. "She gave me the basics in tennis," he said.

But he's no typical mummy's boy.

"Since I was 14, I've been travelling by myself, improving myself, and living by myself," he said.

"She's here just basically to enjoy what I'm doing."

While surely a battle to the end, the final today promises to be good-natured. Federer is a friend of Safin but is eager to add him to a list of victims that includes David Nalbandian and Australians Lleyton Hewitt and Todd Reid.

"Great guy, great match, great player . . . we're all happy to see Marat back," Federer said on Friday night. "But we're scared at the same time. He's one of the toughest players for sure."