TENNIS US OPENFORMER CHAMPION Marat Safin survived a controversial foot-fault call and an inspired opponent before beating Vince Spadea 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the second round of the US Open yesterday.
Leading two sets to one but trailing 4-5 and 40-40 in the fourth, Safin was foot-faulted for apparently having his back foot partly across the centre line at the beginning of his serving motion.
"At the end of the fourth set, I was having some problems fighting with the linesman and the chair umpire because they were wrong, of course," Safin said in an on-court television interview.
"There are some rules but I think I have a point and I think I was right in the decision."
The call meant Safin double-faulted to hand the American a set point, which he converted to force a decider.
"It is not possible," a furious Safin told umpire Carlos Bernades and initially refused to play on before being given a warning for swearing. The official rules state that a serve is a fault if a player, at any time in his service motion, touches or goes outside the imaginary extension of the centre mark with either foot.
To his credit, 2000 champion Safin recovered his poise to break the Spadea serve in the first game of the final set and served superbly throughout the remainder to seal a place in round two.
In the women's first round the only way Ana Ivanovic could have looked less convincing as the top seed was if she had actually lost to Vera Dushevina yesterday and so become the first world number one in US Open history to be upset in her opening match of the tournament.
The Serbian managed to avoid that ignominy but her delight after eventually beating the unheralded Russian 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 was not the reaction of a player with realistic hopes of winning the title.
Since capturing her first grand slam title at the French Open in June, the 20-year-old Ivanovic has struggled with the sort of mental and physical hangover that has afflicted many a first-time major winner down the years.
Her third-round defeat at Wimbledon was characteristic of a post-Roland Garros comedown and she has gone into this US Open having barely played since then. She made little impact in the only tour event she entered, in Montreal, and was then forced to pull out of the Olympics with a thumb injury.
Her lack of such serious action very nearly cost her yesterday's match, in which she led by a set and 4-2 only to lose her way.
When she served for the match at 5-4 in the third set she missed a string of makeable shots and double-faulted on her first match-point before Dushevina eventually put her out of her misery.
Ivanovic made 40 unforced errors, compared with her opponent's 27.
"A lack of match practice showed," the winner said. "But my experience helped me." Her lack of matches may help her as the tournament progresses, allowing her to "play fresh," she said. "I'm probably one of the few players who hasn't played so much lately, so I can try to use that in my benefit," she said.
"I can still do well and just want to basically enjoy each moment I'm on the court and work hard for it." The Serbian has yet to acquire the haughty, self-confident swagger of a champion.
Marat Safin's sister Dinara Safina, who was runner-up to Ivanovic in Paris, does not have it yet either but she looked a good deal more assured as she despatched the American Kristie Haerim Ahn 6-3, 6-4 to earn her second-round berth.
Sixth seed Safina made no allowances for Ahn, who at 16 is the youngest woman in the draw, and showed off her repertoire of groundstrokes and thundering serves to get her campaign off to a flying start.
Among other women's matches, Germany's Anna-Lena Groenfeld upset number 11 seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-2, while number nine seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-2.
