Marat Safin Confirmed Second Round Showdown against Marcos Baghdatis in Australian Open 2008

Marat Safin advanced into the second round of Australian Open with an emphatic straight set victory over Ernests Gulbis from Latvia. With this victory, Safin set up a mouth watering second round clash against Marcos Baghdatis. Safin suffered a lot with his knee injury in the last few seasons. He is also happy with feeling no more pain in his knee during his first round match. He was dominating right from the word go in the match against Ernests Gulbis. However, the Russian faced was heavily tasted in the last set, which was decided in tie break.

Tennis-x.com reported:

Q. What does it take for you to be happy about your game?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's good to know that you can move around the court without any pain and you can move pretty well and you can play good tennis without any doubts on yourself. So I think it's pretty good feeling.

But also, you know, you need some confidence, build up the confidence, because I didn't play any great tennis lately.

So for me to start the year this way, I think it's just to continue.

Well, Safin’s main focus should be on his next match against Marcos Baghdatis, who efeated Thomas Johansson to make it to the second round. Safin has two grand slam titles in his career including the 2005 Australian Open being the latest. So, for last few season he was not in great from. Now, let us hope to see an exciting match in the second round.