Safin Gets Past All Obstacles

The enemies were everywhere Marat Safin of Russia looked on Sunday at Indian Wells.

Swirling winds, sand and a tricky left-hander -- in no specific order. About the only thing in his favor was that the left-hander across the net was not his nemesis, Fabrice Santoro of France.

But Jarkko Nieminen of Finland was doing his best to drive Safin to distraction and nearly drove him straight out of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Twice Nieminen held match point, both in the 10th game of the third set, and twice Safin responded by forcing the issue by coming to the net, fighting off the second with a backhand volley.

The fourth-seeded Safin won the second-round match at the Pacific Life Open, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, in 2 hours 4 minutes, hitting 40 winners and 46 unforced errors.

“Today is not really the day to enjoy tennis, actually,” Safin said. “Even for the spectators, is a little bit freezing. It’s not really like the day you really enjoy tennis....You need to survive. You need to just hang in there, wait for your opportunities and just win the match ugly, which also counts.”

So what was going through his mind on the two match points against him?

“I was really disappointed because I was starting to play well,” Safin said. “Actually, second set I played pretty good for that kind of conditions. And to lose this kind of a match, because if you’re playing bad and you lose, it’s OK. But when you’re trying to play well and you lose, it’s a little bit bad, especially in a big tournament.

“I was pretty disappointed with myself, with everything, with the weather, with myself, the way Jarkko was playing.”

He wasn’t the only one in survival mode in the second round. Tense matches were the norm on the men’s side: Safin was one of three players to win after facing at least one match point.

Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic fought off one match point to defeat Vince Spadea, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (6), and Santoro managed to escape three match points, defeating No. 11 Joachim Johansson of Sweden, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6).

Safin could sympathize with the Swede. He has been there before, and then some, against the crafty Santoro, beating him once in eight matches, and oftentimes, generally losing it.

“He drove me crazy for many years. I’m his client,” Safin said. “

Safin has never gone past the third round at Indian Wells in six previous trips here. He will try to break the desert jinx against Taylor Dent of Newport Beach. Dent’s place in the third round appeared in serious doubt when he lost the first set against Cyril Saulnier of France, 6-1, and received a code violation.

“I’d been threatening to break that [racket] all the first set,” said Dent, who won the second-round match, 1-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2. “I said, ‘Just do it, get it off your mind.’ You know, I did it. A couple of points later, I realized, ‘I’m going to have to really fire myself up here.’ ”

Dent took some ribbing in good humor when someone asked him who had been playing for him in the first set.

“Well, it felt like my little brother was out there playing,” he said, smiling. “My little brother probably would have made a better show of it.”

His brother is 9 years old.

“He’s going to be a monster,” Dent said. “His feet are already like Shaq.”

Not all the matches were marathons. Defending champion and top-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland made it 5-0 against Mardy Fish, winning, 6-3, 6-3, and in an all-Spanish encounter, No. 7 Carlos Moya defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-3, 6-4. And in a night match, second-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia beat Robby Ginepri, 6-2, 7-6 (2).

Federer had the advantage of playing before conditions grew more difficult. Though the temperature dropped and the winds started picking up in the second set, Federer, who has lost only one set in five matches against Fish, hardly looked ruffled.

“It was tough from then on to really get some good rallies going,” Federer said. “But I was always ahead. Made it easy.”

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Featured Matches

Today at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden:

STADIUM COURT, starting at 10 a.m.

* Jurgen Melzer (Austria) vs. Tim Henman (Britain).

* Lindsay Davenport vs. Meghann Shaughnessy.

* Maria Sharapova (Russia) vs. Dinara Safina (Russia).

* Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) vs. Andy Roddick.

Not before 7 p.m.

* Andrei Pavel (Romania) vs. Andre Agassi.

* Guillermo Coria (Argentina) vs. Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand).

STADIUM COURT 2, starting at 10 a.m.

* Tommy Robredo (Spain) vs. Thomas Enqvist (Sweden).

* James Blake vs. Fernando Gonzalez (Chile).

* Simon Aspelin/Todd Perry vs. Mike Bryan/Bob Bryan.