I almost buckled under pressure, says Safin

Marat Safin, the man who finally stopped Federer, said he almost buckled under the pressure of toppling the world number one.

Marat Safin, the man who finally stopped Roger Federer, said he almost buckled under the pressure of toppling the world number one as the Swiss saved six match points in an extraordinary Australian Open semi-final.

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Safin finally prevailed on his seventh match point for a 5-7, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6, 9-7 win over Federer, the man who beat him in last year's decider and five of their other six meetings.

"You have to understand I'm not playing just a simple player, it's the number one player in the world, Roger," Safin said.

"For some reason I found the power to fight, to wait for my opportunities and eventually they came," said Safin, who was also beaten in the 2002 Australian final by Swede Thomas Johansson.

"It's too much pressure even when you have a match point because you really have to build a point to win it," he said.

Safin's win stopped an amazing run by Federer, who had been unbeaten in 26 matches stretching back to last year's Olympics and had won his last 24 matches against top 10 players.

Safin began the match on his 25th birthday on Thursday and ended it four hours, 28 minutes later early on Friday having toppled the man he says set the standard for tennis.