U.S. Open Notebook: Rejuvenated Safin surges into semis

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001 | 12:10 p.m.

NEW YORK -- Just a few weeks ago, defending U.S. Open champion Marat Safin admittedly looked more like a ball person than a tennis player.

"I was playing so bad," Safin said after his 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 quarterfinal victory Wednesday over Mariano Zabaleta. "I was struggling. I was trying to at least put the ball inside the court. But it wasn't possible. I was so bad."

That's not the case anymore.

Since surviving a second-round match against Ivan Ljubicic in which all four sets went to a tiebreaker, the third-seeded Russian has experienced few obstacles on the way to the semifinals and a meeting with Pete Sampras.

After his match against Zabaleta, Safin said he didn't think he was good enough to beat either Sampras or Andre Agassi.

"The way they played the other day was ridiculous," Safin said. "Pete was playing too good against Patrick Rafter. ... Andre against (Roger) Federer, it was a joke. He played too good."

Safin paused and smiled before continuing.

"You know, I think I don't want to look ridiculous on the court against them. So I need some excuse in the beginning. They are playing really good. But I'm also not playing bad, so for me it will be a really big honor to play in the semifinal against Sampras or Agassi."

Like Sampras, Safin's year has been filled with disappointments.

In March he strained his back, but refused to take any time off, resulting in multiple early-round losses.

He displayed signs of life by reaching the round of 32 at the French Open and lost to eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic at Wimbledon.

But immediately before the Open on the hard courts, Safin lost in the second round of the Mercedes Benz Cup tournament that Agassi won in Los Angeles, then pulled out of the first round of the Tennis Masters Series in Montreal with a knee injury.

At the tour's next stop in Cincinnati, Safin again faltered in the first round, but rebounded with a semifinal showing in Indianapolis the following week.

"It was unbelievable today," Safin said. "Right now to come back and play tennis, play great tennis after what I had in beginning of the year.

"(I) just got injured. It's bad. I lost two months, couldn't do nothing. I couldn't run. I couldn't play tennis anymore. But now I am on the way to play good tennis and just play the same thing like I played last year."

Because Sampras hasn't won a tournament all year, there has been speculation that he is about to retire.

In outlasting Agassi, Sampras showed he's far from it.

"It feels good to win two big matches," Sampras said. "If the press is on me about whatever, fine. It has been a disappointing year. To be honest about it, it's well deserved in a way. But what I don't appreciate is the retirement talk. I think it's gotten a little bit carried away."

"I just think it's experience," Williams said of being able to pull through despite the errors. "Really, I was just doing exactly what my dad told me to do, so that helped out a lot when I was listening. When I wasn't, it was tougher."

Williams preferred to keep dad Richard Williams' advice private.

"But everything that he told me always works out."

The fact that Williams hit 21 winners to Clijsters five also helped.

The last time they played was at the French Open. Tied at a set all, Roddick retired because of a pulled hamstring muscle. The previous round, Roddick played through his cramps to outlast former Henderson resident and 1989 French Open champion Michael Chang in a dramatic five-setter.

"That's one of the main reasons why he's gone so quickly up the rankings -- because he's got no fear up there," Hewitt said. "He pulls the trigger when he believes he needs to.

"That's one good thing about him. He's not worried about what the other guy's going to do. He goes out there and wins matches off his own racket."