PARIS, 6 November 2004 — Russia’s Marat Safin put down the battling challenge of Australian second seed Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 7-6 (7 2) yesterday to reach the semifinals of the 2.45-million-euro Paris Masters and stay on course for his third title here.
The sixth-seeded Safin, the winner in 2000 and 2002 and a runner-up in 1999, now faces Argentina’s 13th seed Guillermo Canas for a place in tomorrow’s final. “It’s been a long time since I played that well,” said Safin.
“I really enjoyed it tonight and I hope to keep playing like this until the end of the season. But having to play someone like Lleyton automatically helps you play better. You have to focus and play well in all aspects of the game.”
Hewitt said Safin, the highest seed left in the event, was easily the favorite to lift the title on Sunday where victory would make the Russian only the second player, after Boris Becker, to win the Paris title three times.
Safin’s win, in 1hr 40min, was achieved in dramatic circumstances. He squandered a match point in the 10th game of the second set and then had to stave off two break points in the 12th to prompt the crucial tiebreak
Safin broke in the fifth game of the first set and then battled back from 0-30 down in the crucial 10th game with two huge, fiercely driven forehands which led to set point which he converted when Hewitt hit a forehand long.
The 24-year-old Russian, who won the Madrid Masters title last month, then broke in the fifth game of the second set in a manner which summed up his determination.
Hewitt had caught the top of the net with a return which bobbled awkwardly over onto Safin’s side, but the Russian recovered his poise to sprint to the ball and won the point with a gentle cross-court forehand dab. However, the nerves crept in when he wasted a match point at 5-4 to let Hewitt back in and the Australian then held for 6-5 and even had two points in the next game to go into a deciding set
But Safin recovered his composure with two crunching backhands and a Hewitt double fault giving him the impetus in the tiebreak as he went on to book his place in his seventh semi-final of 2004.
Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek reached the last four with a 7-6 (7 1), 6-3 win over Mikhail Youzhny, the man who knocked out defending champion Tim Henman the day before.
Today, he will face either Belarussian Max Mirnyi, also a qualifier who put out top seed Andy Roddick in the third round, or Sweden’s Robin Soderling for a place in tomorrow’s final.
Canas reached his seventh semifinal of the season with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and gained revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Spaniard in the Vienna final three weeks ago.
Zvonareva Rips Capriati to Book All-Russian Semifinal
In Philadelphia, Russia’s Vera Zvonareva routed American Jennifer Capriati 6-0, 6-1 here yesterday to book a semifinal date with compatriot Nadia Petrova at the $585,000 WTA Advanta Championships.
The victory sustained sixth-seeded Zvonareva’s chances of reaching next week’s season-ending WTA Tour Championship, a showdown of the season’s eight top players at Los Angeles. Fourth seed Capriati’s chance to reach the season-ending event ended with her defeat.
Russia’s Petrova, the seventh seed, also pulled off an upset, ousting second-seeded compatriot Anastasia Myskina 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, to set up a semifinal meeting with Zvonareva.
In later quarter-finals top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France will face American fifth seed Venus Williams, also trying to win her way to Los Angeles next week, and Australian eighth seed Alicia Molik will face Russian third seed Maria Sharapova.
