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Aus Open: Safin beats Federer
Russian fourth seed Marat Safin beat world number one Roger Federer to enter the final of the Australian Open on Thursday.
- NDTVSports
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:49 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Melbourne:
Russian fourth seed Marat Safin beat world number one Roger Federer to enter the final of the Australian Open on Thursday. Safin needed over four hours to fight his way back from two sets to one to win 5-7, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6, 9-7. It was sweet revenge for the Russian who had lost to Federer in the final at Melbourne last year. He will now play Heitt in Sunday's final. Fed express stopped The contrast between the two men couldn't be more different. Federer was on a 26 match unbeaten streak dating back to the Athen's Olympics. On the other hand, Safin had battled back from an injury-riddled 2003 to finish 2004 in the top four for just the third time in five years. And it wasn't just the form that was the difference. Federer won every final he made in 2004, a total of 11 titles while Safin picked up just three. But as the match wore on so did Safin's confidence. He fought back from a match point down to take the fourth set, this was just the third set that Federer had dropped since beating Andre Agassi in the quarter-finals of the US Open in September. Safin nicknamed the "Big Red" was celebrating his 25th birthday on Thursday. And the match, which lasted well over four hours, gave him just the birthday present he wanted, the third grand slam final of his career. With only one grand slam title to his name, the 2000 US Open, Safin will be hoping to go one better. He has twice lost in the final of the Australian Open, once to Thomas Johansson and last year to Federer.Topics mentioned in this article
Tennis Australian Open 2012
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