Not this time

Safin breaks down Sampras, moves into quarterfinals

Marat Safin beat Pete Sampras in the 2000 U.S. Open final. Adam Pretty/Getty Images

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Pete Sampras was intimidated in the first two sets against Marat Safin. He backed off on the serve that has helped him win a record 13 Grand Slam titles and he stayed behind the baseline so that the Russian couldn't pass him.

Safin took control when he broke Sampras' serve in the opening game and then withstood a comeback attempt to win 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8) Monday and advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals.

"It was a great match for both of us -- it was a great comeback from Pete," Safin said. "The people they were supporting him very much ... it was very difficult. But I played a great tiebreaker in the fourth and deserved to win."

Safin and Sampras were the only Grand Slam winners left in the fourth round at Melbourne Park.

"It's a tough one to lose," Sampras said. "I played well enough in the third and fourth to keep it going, but I didn't convert the points I needed."

Safin beat Sampras 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to win the U.S. Open in 2000, the most one-sided result against a former champion in 25 years.

Although Sampras won last year's semifinal at the U.S. open, the 21-year-old Russian is 4-3 against Sampras, who has a record 13 Grand Slam titles.

"He played phenomenal in the first couple of sets, it reminded me of the Open a couple of years ago," Sampras said. "When he gets going ... he's one of the best out there."

With seventh-seeded Tommy Haas the highest-ranking player still in contention, Safin is gaining as a favorite to win the year's first major. His next opponent is Wayne Ferreira.

"I have more experience than the other guys -- they've never won a Grand Slam. But I have very tough opponents ahead," Safin said. "Ferreira, it doesn't matter if he's won a slam or not, he's tough."

Haas' best performance at a Grand Slam was a semifinal appearance at Melbourne in 1999. The German finished 2001 with a No. 8 ranking.

Only four seeded men reached the quarterfinals. No. 16 Thomas Johansson faces fellow Swede Jonas Bjorkman on Tuesday and No. 26 Jiri Novak plays Stefan Koubek of Austria.

Haas survived a match point before he angled a backhand volley crosscourt to beat Switzerland's Roger Federer 7-6 (3), 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 8-6 and advanced to a quarterfinal against Marcelo Rios.

Federer missed a match point on Haas' serve at 5-6 and 30-40 in the fifth set, then made five consecutive errors. Haas went ahead 7-6 and he served out in the next game.

A resurgent Rios had a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 win over Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.

Rios, who created a stir by describing the depth in the women's field as a "joke" after his third-round win over Alberto Martin, converted six of seven break points and shut down Lapentti, seeded 23rd.

Ferreira sealed a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 9-7 win over Spain's Albert Costa with an overhead smash after 4 hours, 10 minutes to advance to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal since 1994.

The 30-year-old South African, who served for the match in the fourth set before losing the set in a tiebreaker, dropped to his knees and then ran around the court waving in celebration.

Ferreira had won five of his 11 matches with Sampras, but is 0-2 against Safin.

"Right now, I think I'm playing well enough to beat anybody,' Ferreira said. 'It doesn't really matter who's left. It's up to me really."

On the women's side, defending champion Jennifer Capriati moved into the quarterfinals against No. 7 Amelie Mauresmo, while No. 4 Kim Clijsters needed just 45 minutes to beat Janette Husarova 6-0, 6-2 and advance to a quarterfinal against fellow Belgian Justine Henin.

Clijsters, who made the last French Open final after beating Henin in the semifinals at Roland Garros, said she aggravated an elbow injury and withdrew from doubles to focus on singles.

Henin, seeded sixth, had a 6-0, 6-3 win over No. 12 Elena Dementieva.

Mauresmo, an Australian Open finalist in 1999, had some anxious moments in a 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 win over unseeded Marlene Weingartner.

"I had a very good start and then maybe I wanted to do too much," Mauresmo said. "I started to make a few mistakes and then ... she started to hit everything and go for it."

Mauresmo and Henin's fourth-round matches were disrupted by rain until the roofs were closed on center court at Vodafone Arena. Matches on outside courts were postponed to Tuesday as rain persisted.

The top-ranked Capriati wasted three match points against Rita Grande, including two during a tiebreaker in which 10 of the last 11 points went against serve, Capriati finished a 6-3 7-6 (9) win when the Italian faulted.

"It was a tough way to end the match, and I was sorry for her," Capriati said. "But thanks for that."

The 25-year-old American could sympathize. She netted a routine backhand volley on her second match point, at 7-6 in the tiebreaker, and let out an incredulous laugh before bending at the hips.

She cracked a backhand return down the line to set up another match point at 9-8, a shot that seemed to force Grande, seeded 20th, into submission.

"I was scared on [the next] match point when she would do it again," said Grande, who had two serves for the set. "She's No. 1, and she'll take a risk. You make a mistake, and that's it."

 

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