Sat, Jan 22, 2005 page20

• Injury brings out best in Marat Safin

  ROUND 3 An injured ankle seems to have sparked the Russian to life, while others seem to be succumbing to a host of physical problems

  • AP
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  Not many players benefit from an injury. Then again, Marat Safin has always been a little different.

  Playing better after he twisted his long-tender right ankle, fourth-seeded Safin was testy at times, but kept his famous temper in check in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 third-round victory Friday against Croatia's Mario Ancic at the Australian Open.

  

  Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia after falling on the court while playing Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina in their singles match at the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday.

  PHOTO: AFP

  Still, injuries did take their toll in the season-opening Grand Slam.

  

  Marat Safin during his match against Mario Ancic in the Australian Open yesterday. Safin won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

  PHOTO: AP

  Top-ranked Roger Federer was broken in his first service game before getting back on track and spent less than two sets on center court when Finland's Jarkko Nieminen called it quits with an abdominal muscle tear.

  Lisa Raymond lasted only one game of her doubles match before retiring with a back muscle strain, leaving her doubtful for her third-round match Saturday against French Open champion Anastasia Myskina. Men's French Open champion Gaston Gaudio, seeded 10th, was able to continue after treatment on both thighs, but Dominik Hrbaty upset him in five sets despite 88 unforced errors.

  

  PHOTO: AP

  In women's singles, second-ranked Amelie Mauresmo and US Open titlist Svetlana Kuznetsova both had straight-set victories and will face unseeded opponents in the fourth round.

  No. 7 Serena Williams ended the run of wild card entry Sania Mirza, the first Indian woman to make it to the second round of a Grand Slam, finishing off the 6-1, 6-4 victory with a second-serve ace, then skipping off the court. She next meets No. 11 Nadia Petrova.

  Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova, seeded fourth, was playing later, while eighth-seeded Andre Agassi, seeking his fifth title here, took his baseline game into the night's last match against serve-and-volleyer Taylor Dent.

  Safin looked tight while just missing the lines early against Ancic, but broke the 2004 Wimbledon semifinalist in the fifth game. He finished off the first set with a pair of aces after squandering a 40-0 lead.

  Ancic swapped his white shirt for a blue one and promptly ran off the next four games. Safin got one break back, but Ancic then held twice at love to even up the match.

  The crowd included a number of vocal Croats dressed in their national colors and waving their flag. One woman shouted: "Mario, marry me! I love you!"

  Both players became increasingly irritable as their unforced errors piled up, muttering to themselves or yelling in anguish at missed opportunities. Safin, notorious for smashing rackets early in his career, often hung his head or stared at his racket as if it had betrayed him. At one point, he rapped his head with his knuckles, trying to regain focus.

  "It's a wake-up call," Safin explained. "Sometimes my head goes away and doesn't come back -- I have to get it back here."

  After hitting a forehand long to give Safin a break for a 3-1 lead in the third set, Ancic -- back to wearing white again -- bashed a towering fly ball that landed in the seats. Safin netted a backhand on the next point and banged a ball just as high that landed near the umpire's chair.

  In between the errors, the two men exchanged heavy topspin drives that often caught the tape during long rallies.

  After going up 2-0 in the fourth set, Safin tried to push off to go for a backhand, rolled his right ankle and went down as Ancic held to pull within 2-1. Safin already had the ankle taped, as he has over the last two years, and a trainer reinforced the wrap at the changeover and gave him a painkiller pill.

  Safin took his next service game at love with an ace, joking with a line judge who'd earlier called one of his serves wide. He later said the injury relaxed him.

  "It ... took all the pressure a little bit from me in the match because I was a little bit uptight," he said. "When I twist my ankle, I just kind of stopped a little bit thinking about the way I was playing. And I played quite a good game afterwards."

  Mauresmo next faces Evgenia Linetskaya, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over American Amy Frazier, seeded 21st.

  "It's a long way still, three matches down, four to go and some good players still in the field," she said of the prospects for her first Grand Slam title. "I'm happy with how things are going. Hopefully, I get closer and closer to the No. 1 spot."

  In other women's matches, 15th-seeded Silvia Farina Elia cruised past British qualifier Elena Baltacha, and 48-year-old Martina Navratilova advanced to the third round of the women's doubles with Daniela Hantuchova.

  On the men's side, Thomas Johansson of Sweden, seeded 30th, survived his third consecutive five-set match by downing American Kevin Kim.
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