June 26, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1429

LONDON, June 25: Third seed Novak Djokovic became the highest men’s casualty at Wimbledon on Wednesday when Marat Safin rolled back the years with a crushing 6-4 7-6 6-2 victory.

The 28-year-old Russian dominated from start to finish on Centre Court as Djokovic, tipped last week by Bjorn Borg to reach the final, wilted in the sunshine.

Djokovic was a shadow of the player who won the Australian Open last January and reached the semi-finals here 12 months ago. His serve misfired and he was bullied from the baseline by one of the sport’s great enigmas.

One of many Djokovic double faults gifted Safin, the former U.S. Open and Australian Open champion, a decisive break of serve in the opening set and Safin turned up the heat to romp through a second set tiebreak.

Djokovic threw away his opening service game of the third set with another double fault and although he showed a modicum of fight to save three match points another lame second serve into the net ended the contest.

While Djokovic was poor, some of Safin’s play was reminiscent of his run to the Australian Open title in 2005.

A screaming double-fisted backhand to within and inch of the baseline to bring up match points was one of many clean winners that had Djokovic chasing shadows.

Safin, playing at his ninth Wimbledon, made a mockery of his world ranking of 75 and if he continues to serve as he did against Djokovic he could have a chance to emulate his run to the last eight in 2001 when he lost to Goran Ivanisevic.

“It (the victory) came at the right moment because I have a lack of confidence and lack of match fitness,” Safin, who before his two wins here had only twice managed back-to-back victories all season, said after coming off court.

“To beat Djokovic in the Centre Court at Wimbledon, especially which is not my perfect surface, it was a great match. I haven’t won a match like this in a long time.

“The way I’m playing now I think I can go far.”

Djokovic, who had made at least the semi-finals of his last five grand slams, made no excuses after his second heavy career career loss to Safin, the other coming in the first round of the 2005 Australian Open when he managed just three games.

“I didn’t do anything I wanted to do,” he told reporters.

“He was serving well and put a lot of pressure on me and I served a lot of double faults.

“I think being on Centre Court motivated him and he was mentally there today -- the opposite of me. I didn’t do anything to hurt him, no angles no precision. I was very up and down.”

Safin will face Italian Andreas Seppi in the third round and should he continue to display the form that demolished Djokovic a semi-final showdown against defending champion Roger Federer is not out of the question.

“It depends on the time and the day,” Djokovic said when asked about the notoriously unpredictable Safin’s chances.

Results:

Men’s singles second round results on Wednesday (prefix number denotes seeding):

20-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) bt Albert Montanes (Spain) 7-6(4) 6-0 6-2; 29-Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt Florent Serra (France) 6-3 6-7(4) 6-2 6-7(5) 6-4; Mischa Zverev (Germany) bt 21-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain)

6-4 6-4 2-1 retired; Marat Safin (Russia) bt 5-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 6-4 7-6(3) 6-2; Bobby Reynolds (United States) bt Frank Dancevic (Canada) 4-6 7-6(10) 6-4 6-4; 13-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) 7-6(5) 6-3 7-5.

Women’s singles first and second round results on Wednesday (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round:

1-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) bt Nathalie Dechy (France) 6-7(2) 7-6(3) 10-8; 4-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukraine) 6-2 6-3; 11-Marion Bartoli (France) bt Tatiana Perebiynis (Ukraine) 6-2 7-5; Casey Dellacqua (Australia) bt Pauline Parmentier (France) 1-6 6-2 6-3; 18-Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) bt Samantha Stosur

(Australia) 6-2 0-6 6-4; Zheng Jie (China) bt Elena Baltacha (Britain) 6-2 7-5.

First round

5-Elena Dementieva (Russia) bt Maria Elena Camerin (Italy) 6-3 6-7(7) 6-3.—Reuters