2 Responses to ao04federer_safin

1. Voo de Mar says:

   February 18, 2021 at 9:24 am

   Points won by each set: | 42-41, 35-26, 36-26 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   32 % Federer – 29 of 90
   15 % Safin – 18 of 116

   The match lasted 2 hours 15 minutes – exactly the same like a semifinal 11 years before concluded with the same scoreline. Safin [86] saved a double set point serving at 5:6 and three set points at 3:5 in the 2nd set. After the opener he was exhausted having played a record number of sets prior to the major final, and couldn’t get cheap points on serve. The ~23-year-old Federer [2] became the best player in the world thanks to that title. “There are a lot of young and very good players,” said Safin. “We’ll be famous in five years. It will be like Agassi, Sampras and McEnroe. It’s the evolution of tennis.” Safin could think about himself, Federer & Roddick, but the future revealed that (at the time new) Nadal & unknown Djokovic were the toughest rivals of Federer in the second half of the 00s.

   Federer’s route to his first Aussie Open title:
   1 Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-3, 6-4, 6-0
   2 Jeff Morrison 6-2, 6-3, 6-4
   3 Todd Reid 6-3, 6-0, 6-1
   4 Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4
   Q David Nalbandian 7-5, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
   S Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 6-1, 6-4
   W Marat Safin 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-2

   Safin tied Harold Solomon‘s record (Roland Garros ’76) for the most sets played in the Grand Slam fortnight
   – 30 – and his tiredness was visible during the final. Here’s Safin’s epic route to the final:

   1 Vahaly 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
   2 Nieminen 7-6(5), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
   3 T.Martin 7-5, 1-6, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5
   4 Blake 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3
   Q Roddick 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(0), 6-4
   S Agassi 7-6(6), 7-6(6), 5-7, 1-6, 6-3

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   January 15, 2023 at 8:33 am

   With his last four emphatic wins, Federer established his superiority over the best players of his generation: Ferrero & Safin (b. 1980), Hewitt (b. 1981), Nalbandian (b. 1982). Admittedly Federer had a positive H2H vs Safin, but negative vs the other three players. below comparison of those H2Hs before Aussie Open ’04 and how they came to their ends many years later…

   Nalbandian… 1:5… 11-8
   Hewitt… 2:7… 18-9
   Ferrero… 3:3… 10-3 (Federer got 1 of first 3 wins over Ferrero thanks to retirement)
   Safin… 3:1… 10-2

   Federer’s fifth biggest rival at the time it was born in 1982 Andy Roddick (5:1… 21-3)

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