Color Safin gone in the quarterfinals

The outsized personality and big, bold tennis game of Marat Safin certainly doesn’t need any extra selling power, but there he was Friday in the quarterfinals at UCLA, wearing a loud orange getup, almost tangerine colored.

Hey, Mr. Tangerine Man, play a more few games for me.

All Safin needed was two more. The Russian was two games from a tremendously appealing semifinal today at the Countrywide Classic against second-seeded James Blake, who beat Vince Spadea, 7-6 (2), 6-4, in an earlier quarterfinal.

Then, as it often happens, Safin unraveled in semi-spectacular fashion, losing the final four games to Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea after holding a 4-2 third-set lead.

In fact, the seventh-seeded Lee won the last nine points to defeat Safin, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, in 2 hours 13 minutes, and said through an interpreter afterward: “I didn’t give up at all.”

The other semifinal, at night, will feature wild-card entrant Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, a finalist here in 2004, against Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, who defeated wild card Zack Fleishman, 6-4, 6-2.

Kiefer defeated countryman Michael Berrer, 7-6 (5), 6-1, on the Grandstand Court during the Safin-Lee match.

“No, it doesn’t matter,” Kiefer said. “I don’t care which court I play on or where I play.

“It’s never easy to play against a good friend. We are practicing so many times. Not only winning by playing good tennis but winning by fighting, that’s the most important thing.”

Though Blake had defeated Spadea only once in seven previous ATP Tour matches, his ranking (No. 9) compared to Spadea’s (No. 62), hardly made it seem a massive upset. Blake was clearly delighted at breaking through against a personal nemesis and celebrated more than usual.

And, speaking of a personal nemesis, Safin merely has to look in the mirror after Friday’s outing. He tried to take some positives from this tournament, saying he learned something from the match and did win two rounds in Los Angeles.

“I had a chance for a double break,” Safin said of the third set. “I hit on the tape going down the line. I should have gone a different way.... He started to play much better. He was more aggressive. I was more passive. He was more confident.”

Safin has a new coach (former tour player Hernan Gumy) and was asked if he felt as though time was running short for his career, at age 27.

“Well, if I look back into my career I did a good job,” he said. “So it’s always, I should have won five Grand Slams, 10 Grand Slams. It was [Pete] Sampras should have been better. [Andre] Agassi should have been better. And [Marcelo] Rios should have been better.

“Before I became pro, I could have just stopped tennis without getting anywhere and being a coach in a club. So I think I did a good job.”

Was it still fun? “Well, I’m trying,” he said.

Safin did get off the best line of the day when asked about David Beckham’s possible impact on soccer in the United States, and he took a shot at Victoria Beckham.

“I don’t know if one person can change it all,” he said. “It looks like the wife, she’s getting more attention than he is. Way too much.”

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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Featured matches

Today at the Countrywide Classic being played at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the UCLA campus:

STADIUM COURT

Starting at 11:30 a.m.

James Blake vs. Hyung-Taik Lee.

Starting at 7:30 p.m.

Nicolas Kiefer vs. Radek Stepanek; Bob Bryan-Mike Bryan vs. Jeff Coetzee-Wes Moodie.