The Hindu : Sport : Russia off to a great start

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Russia off to a great start

MOSCOW: Marat Safin beat Andy Roddick and Mikhail Youzhny downed James Blake to give Russia a 2-0 lead over the United States on Friday in their Davis Cup semifinal here.

Safin defeated Roddick 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5) in the opening match, with Youzhny beating Blake 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 in the second.

Russia can clinch the best-of-five series on Saturday with a victory in the doubles.

Roddick and Safin had played five times before — all on hard courts — with the American winning the last three in 2004. But this match was played on clay at the Olympic indoor stadium.

``We know each other pretty well,'' Safin said. ``I know he's not confident on clay ... It would have been different on a hard court.''

Roddick opened strongly, allowing Safin only one point on the American's first three service games. But in the seventh game, Safin earned two break points with a backhand passing shot, and converted on the first. The Russian saved a break point in the next game before holding to close out the set.

Roddick tried to change tactics in the second set and play serve-and-volley, but it didn't make much difference.

Roddick saved three break points in the third game of the second set and one more in the fifth before Safin ended the match's longest rally — 26 shots — with a lob to break serve.

Safin and Roddick exchanged breaks late in the third set to force a tiebreaker. Down 2-5, Safin won five straight points to end the match.

Consolidating the lead

In the second match, Blake broke Youzhny in the second game, but the Russian capitalised on the American's two double faults in the seventh game to break back and got another break to take the first set.

Blake levelled the match in the second set with a strong serve-and-volley game. But he faded in the third, winning only one point in the last four games.

The fourth set opened with an exchange of breaks, then stayed on serve until Youzhny broke Blake in the 11th game with a volley winner.

Safin, who has missed much of the season with a knee injury, was picked by Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev ahead of fifth-ranked clay-court specialist Nikolay Davydenko.

Safin said he was confident he could have won if the match had gone into a fourth set, but added ``I was pretty lucky that (Roddick) missed some of his first serves,'' in the tiebreaker.

Roddick complained about the court surface — both players fixed blemishes with their feet — but didn't blame it for his loss.

``It's not the greatest, but as far as I know I was playing on the same court as he was,'' Roddick said. ``The court wasn't bad on my side and good on his. He handled it better.''

The loss was only his eighth in 21 Davis Cup matches, while Safin improved to a 25-14 record.

Roddick said he played his strongest in the third set, boding well for Sunday's reverse singles.

Chance at redemption

``One of the good things about the Davis Cup is in most other tournaments you don't get a second chance,'' he said. ``Here you do and hopefully I'll be able to capitalise on that opportunity.''

According to the draw, Roddick is to face Youzhny on Sunday. But he said Davydenko has looked strong in practice and could play ``if he's healthy.'' — Agencies

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