Safin finds power to leave Seppi in the dark

There have been plenty of times when Marat Safin's temper might have earned him the soubriquet "prince of darkness", but there were other reasons why it seemed appropriate here last night. The lights on the scoreboard shone even more brightly than Safin's tennis as the Russian completed a 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 third-round victory over Andreas Seppi at 9.25pm. By that stage it was so dark that it was a wonder either player could see the ball.

It was a high-quality contest, with both players striking the ball with power and precision from the baseline. If Safin's flatter strokes were more effective, Seppi's whipped forehand also produced a flow of winners.

Safin, who knocked out Novak Djokovic in the previous round, started slowly, losing the first three games, but broke back in the seventh. At 5-5 a huge backhand cross-court winner enabled him to break again and he served out for the set. In the second set Seppi never looked back after breaking to lead 3-1, but Safin restored his advantage in the third by winning the tie-break.

Thousands stayed in the ever-deepening gloom to watch a fascinating fourth set. Safin made the early break, but Seppi never gave up. When the Russian served for the match at 5-4 Seppi got to 15-40, only for Safin to save the two break points, the second with a huge ace. Two points later the Italian netted a backhand to send Safin through to a fourth-round encounter with Stanislas Wawrinka, whose opponent, Mischa Zverev, retired injured when he was already two sets down.

"I was getting really nervous because I thought we might have to come back tomorrow," Safin said. "It was a good match and we both played well. All these young guys want to beat me because of what I've achieved in the past. They want to play great tennis against me. I hope the fans enjoyed it. They were great. It was freezing cold out there and we could hardly see the ball but they stayed to the end."

As if to celebrate the success of their footballers at the European Championship, Spain's male tennis players have had their most successful first week ever here. Five reached the third round, beating the country's previous best total of four, set in 2003, 2006 and 2007. The highest number of Spaniards through to the last 16 was three in 2006.

Two Spanish left-handers made it into the fourth round yesterday, with Fernando Verdasco beating Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 and Feliciano Lopez ending American interest in the men's singles by beating Bobby Reynolds 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

Lopez will now face Marcos Baghdatis, the crowd-pleaser who reached the semi-finals and quarter-finals here in 2006 and 2007 respectively. The Cypriot put some of the doubts about his fitness to rest by beating Simon Stadler of Germany 7-6, 6-4, 6-2. He did not seem unduly troubled by the persistent ankle problem that was the root cause of his first-round exit at the French Open.

Verdasco equalled his best performance on these courts, having reached the fourth round two years ago before losing to Radek Stepanek. He has made the last 16 at Grand Slams on three other occasions.

The 24-year-old Madrileno has one of the most feared forehands in the game, though his hit-and-hope style rarely lends itself to the sort of consistency needed to win tournaments. On this occasion everything fell into place. Verdasco never dropped his serve, hit 11 aces and won 90 per cent of the points when his first serve found the target. He cracked 49 winners to Berdych's 21 to claim victory in just an hour and 39 minutes.

The final game summed up Verdasco's superiority. From 0-15 down he won four points in a row: a big forehand winner into the corner, an ace, another thunderous forehand and finally a service winner down the middle that Berdych was barely able to reach. Court Two broke into applause for a player who can be a great entertainer on his day. In the fourth round he will play Mario Ancic, who beat David Ferrer.

In the past Verdasco has given no indication of a particular liking for grass, but he enjoyed his best run on the surface last week at Nottingham, where he lost to Ivo Karlovic in the final. In the first two rounds here he accounted for Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, a finalist on grass at Halle two weekends ago, and Belgium's Olivier Rochus.

Having finished the year in the world's top 30 for the first time at the end of 2007, Verdasco broke into the world's top 20 two weeks ago. Now No 18 in the rankings, he is likely to make further progress after his success here.

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