Safin survives five-setter against Kiefer

Safin pulls for sister Safina NEW YORK, Aug 27 (Reuters) -- Marat Safin scraped through to the second round of the U.S. Open by the skin of his teeth on Tuesday, but his immediate thoughts afterwards were for his little sister, Dinara. "Definitely she's playing better than me," he smiled after his 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 victory over Germany's Nicolas Kiefer. Dinara, who has followed the Russian tradition of adding an "a" to the end of her surname, beat 36th-ranked Rita Grande on Monday to set up a clash with world No. 1 Serena Williams. On Tuesday, Marat swelled with sibling pride. "It's good," he grinned. "She's in her first grand slam... it's difficult, you know, first round against Grande, she's a big player. "She was a little bit nervous... it's normal, but she finished the match, she played well. "The most important thing is to enjoy tennis. Enjoy it, have fun... that's what I want for my sister." Safin said he was looking forward to Safina's showdown with Serena. "I wanna see that match," he smiled. "I think Serena's gonna win, but still, you know, it is a nice feeling to play on centre court -- I hope they're gonna play there. "For my sister, she will have such a big experience at the age of 16. I think it is great."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Second-seeded Marat Safin of Russia struggled through a marathon match but advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open on Tuesday, beating Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).

Safin, who won this tournament two years ago and reached the semifinals last year, dominated the first set and looked set to advance easily. Instead, the match lasted 4 hours, 31 minutes.

"The first set was great, then I lost completely my concentration," Safin said.

But it was mistakes that cost the world No. 2 and Kiefer took advantage in the second two sets, despite calling for a timeout in the third set to have the big toe on his left foot looked at by a trainer.

"He tried as much as he could," Safin said. "It was unbelievable."

Kiefer, however, had his own problems, complaining several times about line calls. And it was an overruled call in the 10th game of the fourth set that may have cost him the first major upset of the tournament.

Down 5-4 but leading 40-15, Kiefer thought he served out the game and had drawn even in the set. But the chair umpire reversed the linesman's decision and called a fault.

"That was a very late overrule," Kiefer said.

Kiefer and Safin rallied on the second serve, but Kiefer shot into the net for 40-30. The German then double-faulted to bring the game to deuce.

Kiefer took the advantage on the next point, but Safin won the next three to take the set and put himself back into position to close out the match.

In the fifth set, Safin nearly put Kiefer away in the fourth game, but the Russian couldn't convert any of his six break-point chances.

Safin held in the fifth, but the pair traded breaks in the next four games, all played while Kiefer's legs began to cramp.

Kiefer finally held serve in the 10th game to tie the set at 5-5 and had one failed chance to break Safin in the next game. In the changeover, both players were cramping and got rub downs.

"I never had cramps before, I just saw on TV ... But now it happened to me also," Kiefer said. "It's a very bad feeling."

Kiefer, with his leg tightening in the final game, saved two match points before winning to send the match into a fifth-set tiebreaker.

"In the tiebreak ... I was really scared because I didn't want to lose. I was really choking," Safin said.

But Kiefer, down 6-3 in the tiebreak, had trouble getting up after losing a point, but he still saved another match point before Safin broke to win the match after a 1:27 fifth set.

"It's not easy when you cramp and you have to serve. You don't get any power from your legs," Kiefer said.

Safin will meet Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil in the second round.

Safin, still just 22 years old, reached the final of the Australian Open earlier this year and then advanced to the semifinals at the French Open. He was eliminated in the second round at Wimbledon.

Kiefer reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open in 2000.

 

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