| Thursday, 3 July 2008 Written by Drew Lilley The big buzz surrounding the build-up to Wimbledon was which half of the draw Novak Djokovic would find himself in. The man who had broken the Federer-Nadal duopoly was very much the Djoker in the pack, capable of knocking off either the undisputed world No. 1 or the undisputed world No. 2 in the semis, or so the theory went. And then along came Marat Safin, or rather back came Marat Safin – the last man to win a Grand Slam before the Hispano-Swiss hegemony was established (and of course before Djokovic came along and upset the apple-cart in Melbourne this year). The Australian Open was where Safin had what cynics believed would be his final hurrah. The lofty (6’4”/1.93m) Russian overcame Lleyton Hewitt in the 2005 final, rounding off an awful 18-month spell blighted by injury but which also ushered in what many thought was a terminal decline. Since that victory, he had not gone beyond the fourth round of any of the Slams, and any thoughts of Wimbledon glory – where he had fallen in the third round or earlier in seven out of eight attempts – were dismissed as a pipe dream. And then the 28-year-old went and beat Djokovic. In the second round. In straight sets. He then went on to add four more seeds to his list of victims – No. 29 Andreas Seppi, No.13 Stanislas Wawrinka and No.31 Feliciano Lopez, to the delight of his semi-final opponent. “Marat and I know each other well,” said Federer after his second round win over Robin Soderling. “We trained lots together in Paris and it’s always nice to see him. I’m glad he’s done well. This is a big tournament and he’s a big player, so it’s great for him. “It’s amazing that he’s come good on grass. Mind you, I played him here last year in the third round and that was tough [Federer won 6-1, 6-4, 7-6] and at Halle [on grass in 2005, Federer won 6-4, 6-7, 6-4]. “Marat’s one of the bigger players, along with Ferrero, Roddick, Hewitt. These guys who have been No. 1 in the world and have won Grand Slams, you can take them like they are No. 1 in some ways because one day anybody can play great, especially the former greats like them. So I never looked at Marat like No. 89 in the world. He’s finally showing again what he can do.” Federer leads the head-to-head 8-2, with a 2-0 advantage on grass – a surface on which he is unbeaten in 64 matches, as compared with Safin, who coming into the tournament had only played 38 times on the surface, winning just over half (21). The Russian reckons that SW19’s lawns are getting slower, however, and with the majority of players rarely venturing beyond the baseline, he is enjoying a sudden and unexpected Indian summer, which he attributes to a change in his entourage. “Nothing worked until I changed the coach,” said Safin of his new mentor Hernan Gumy. “I’d been losing first rounds left and right. I was really desperate and I didn’t know what to do. Then all of a sudden just out of nowhere I started to play better in the clay court season and the confidence started to come.” He is also a member of the mutual respect society (as illustrated by Federer’s quotes above). “I’m playing in the semi-finals but that doesn’t mean that I have a chance there, because the guy has won how many times already here?” said Safin. “It’s my first semi-final, so the levels are a little bit different. I think it would be just a little bit too difficult for me to beat him.” Self-effacing stuff from Safin, but Federer did not win five consecutive Wimbledon titles by underestimating his opponents – particularly ones capable of beating Djokovic in straight sets.
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