Safin struggles to reach final

Marat Safin, displaying greater composure after injuring his lower back in the final set than in the rest of the match put together, fought his way into today's final at the Dubai Duty Free Open by defeating Sweden's Thomas Johansson, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, after two hours and 26 minutes.

Marat Safin, displaying greater composure after injuring his lower back in the final set than in the rest of the match put together, fought his way into today's final at the Dubai Duty Free Open by defeating Sweden's Thomas Johansson, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, after two hours and 26 minutes.

How effective the Russian top seed will be tonight when he plays his Spanish friend, Juan Carlos Ferrero, remains to be seen. "I have checked with the physio, and I definitely will not be 100 per cent tomorrow," Safin said. "But I will play." Safin injured himself while serving at 2-2, 0-30, having just recovered a break of serve. He won the point for 15-30, but then had to take a three-minute time-out for treatment, lying face-down on the court while his back was massaged.

Although he had to save a break point at 30-40, Safin held serve. He was able to move well enough to keep pounding shots at Johansson, who was evidently unnerved by the situation. Safin broke for 5-3, and saved a break point at 30-40 before serving out the match.

Other than in his native country, the 21-year-old Ferrero could not feel more at home on a court than at the Dubai Tennis Stadium. He acknowledged that his harmony with the surroundings helped him raise his game to save three match points yesterday on the way to defeating Dominik Hrbaty, of Slovakia, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3, to reach his second consecutive final here.

Last year, Ferrero lost to Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. It was the Spaniard's first ATP final since his breakthrough in Majorca in 1999, when he defeated his compatriot, Alex Corretja.

Since his previous visit to Dubai, Ferrero has reached the final in Barcelona, the semi-finals of the French Open - losing to Gustavo Kuerten, who went on to win the title - and has become a national sporting hero, helping Spain win the Davis Cup for the first time with a triumph in Barcelona in December.

The impact of that historic victory appeared to knock Ferrero sideways at the start of the new season. He lost to Andrew Ilie in five sets in the second round of the Australian Open, was then defeated in five sets by the Dutchman Raemon Sluiter in Eindhoven as Spain's Davis Cup reign ended, and was beaten in straight sets by Ivan Ljubicic, of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the first round of the Rotterdam tournament before returning to the Middle East.

Wins against Jonas Bjorkman, Jiri Novak, and Magnus Norman, the second seed, helped restore Ferrero's confidence, but that was close to being turned into a mirage yesterday when Ferrero, the No 7 seed, played the sixth-seeded Hrbaty for the first time.

The Spaniard began brightly enough, breaking for 3-2 and holding for 4-2.

But Hrbaty did not drop another point on his serve for the remainder of the set and broke Ferrero in the eighth and 12th games. Ferrero, fretting over a line call against him, received a code violation after hitting a ball out of the court.

Although Hrbaty's serve was less reliable in the second set, he was able to save two break points in the third game and another in the fifth before putting Ferrero under pressure at 4-5. The Spaniard double-faulted for the sixth time to present Hrbaty with two match points at 15-40 - and saved both with aces. Hrbaty then out-rallied Ferrero to create a third match point, only to return a second serve long.

In the tie-break, Hrbaty double-faulted twice to 3-6, and Ferrero converted the second set point to win the shoot-out, 7-4.

The final set was tight until Ferrero loosened his nerves by executing a spectacular, Becker-style diving stop-volley to hold serve in the fifth game, and followed that by making the decisive break to love for 4-2.

* Lleyton Hewitt will meet Britain's Greg Rusedski after progressing to the quarter-finals of the Sybase Open in San Jose, California, with a 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 win against a Russian qualifier, Andrei Stoliarov. Rusedski is 2-1 down on career meetings with Hewitt. The British No 2 won 6-4, 7-5 on grass at Nottingham in 1999, but was defeated in straight sets by the Australian in Switzerland (carpet) and Germany (hard court) last year. "I'd like to play well because the last two losses were close," said Rusedski, who reached the final of the event in 1997.