Fuente : Wimbledon
http://www.wimbledon.org

WIMBLEDON: Safin Powers Past Philippoussis

/noticias.info/ Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Three straight forward sets, a place in the third round - don't tell Marat Safin, but he is getting rather good at this grass court tennis malarkey. He powered his way past an ailing Mark Philippoussis 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 and looked as if he had finally worked out how a chap is supposed to play on this tricky green stuff.

It was a big match for big men. Both stand 6ft 4in, their impressive frames well covered in, between them, nigh on 30 stone of muscle. Two massive men with huge serves, enormous ground strokes and, when it suited them, big volleys - and neither was willing to give an inch.

At the start there was hardly a gnat's whisker between them and at the end, despite his injured ankle, sheer pride kept Philippoussis on court, refusing to throw in the towel and forcing Safin to work for his win.

With so much firepower raining down on the venerable old Centre Court, the fixtures and fitting, not to mention the line judges, were in serious danger. The net simply could not cope and at the start of the second set, it collapsed under the strain. As the ground staff rushed around in well organised circles, a new net was found, the old was whisked away and, as is the way of things at the All England Club, normal service was swiftly restored.

It was pretty much the same during the rallies, too. Philippoussis may have been a finalist here two years ago but he has been flattened by injuries and a lack of confidence and motivation ever since. Coming into the tournament with an ailing left ankle, he was soon hurting again.

Favouring the sore ankle, he was putting too much pressure on the right ankle and by the end of the first set he was wincing with every awkward move. He had treatment and, later, a word with the doctor, but there was not a lot anyone could do. The longer the match went on, the slower Philippoussis got and the more he began to limp.

Philippoussis knows how to play on grass and with one of the biggest serves on the tour, he knows that Wimbledon ought to be his natural home. Safin, on the other hand, has only just learned to recognise grass as an acceptable surface on which to play tennis. Reaching the final in Halle a couple of weeks ago helped in this transformation, as did his performance against Paradorn Srichaphan in the first round but, still, Safin and grass is not a marriage made in heaven.

What Safin does have, though, is a renewed belief in his own abilities. Reaching the Australian Open final in 2004 proved to him that he could still compete with the best and winning the title six months ago announced his return to the top. So when Philippoussis had three set points in the first set, Safin merely gritted his teeth, refused to panic and waited as the Australian fluffed his chances with three miserable errors.

When Safin had set points minutes later in the tiebreak, he showed Philippoussis exactly how to take them. That is what separates good players from champions.

But as the third set wore on, Philippoussis was struggling more and more and unable to run. He was a sitting target for Safin. Sure enough, the Russian broke for a 4-3 lead, leaving his opponent flat footed and stranded with his passing shots and lobs. But injury or not, Philippoussis had made Safin wait for 2 hours and 13 minutes to earn his first break points of the match.

Ten minutes later it was all over, Safin was through to meet Feliciano Lopez in the third round while Philippoussis was heading back to the doctors to repair yet another injury.

Written by Alix Ramsey


Centre Court - Gentlemen's Singles - 2nd Round
Mark Philippoussis AUS 6(4) 6(4) 4
Marat Safin RUS (5) 7(7) 7(7) 6 notas_de_prensa_archivo