Estoril Open 2004 News and Events

Marat Safin
© João Lagos Sports

Russia's Marat Safin moved through to the semifinals of the Estoril Open for the first time after defeating No. 4 seed Tommy Robredo in a three-set thriller at the Estadio Nacional.

Safin, the No. 8 seed who reached the quarterfinals in 2002, came through 7-6(2), 2-6, 7-6(5) in 2 hours, 27 minutes to record his fourth win against Robredo in six career meetings.

"It's really good to be in the semifinals, and it's really good for my confidence," said Safin. "It was really difficult in the conditions and difficult for both of us to show our best tennis. We were both fighting against each other and fighting against ourselves. Neither of us wanted to lose, and I think that given the conditions, we played good tennis."

The 24-year-old from Moscow, who reached the final at the Australian Open earlier this year, overcame the windy conditions to book a place in the last four against Irakli Labadze.

Despite three double faults in his opening service game, Safin eventually held and broke Robredo to love to lead 2-0 in the opening set. But the Spaniard hit back immediately and broke Safin again in the ninth game to serve for the set only to see his chance slip away as the Russian broke back and eventually took the opener in the tie-break.

Robredo soon put the disappointment behind him and ran away with the second set in just over half an hour, breaking Safin's serve three times to force a decider.

Both players traded breaks early in the final set, which then went comfortably with serve until the tie-break. At 5-5, Safin attacked the net with some purpose to produce a match point, and Robredo duly handed him a place in the semifinals with his fourth double fault of the match.

"In the second set, I had my chance in the first game [at 15-30] and the match would have been basically over," said Safin. "But I missed it and he felt he could come back into the match. Sometimes I went for too much and wanted to win in two sets, and before I knew it, the second set was gone. So I really wanted to keep my concentration in the third set."

Looking ahead to his match with good friend Labadze, Safin added: "We have known each other since we were nine years old and we have played together in Russia. We played in the Under 16 European championships and he beat me in the quarterfinals. He's one of my best friends and I really like him. It will be nice for me to play him in the semis and hopefully get revenge."