Russian Marat Safin surprised all, including himself, by dumping third seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the second round at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
Having booked on a flight home Wednesday evening, Safin, 28, had a surprising win of 6-4, 7-6 and 6-2 over Djokovic to continue his journey at the Grand Slam tournament.
“There is a flight at 8.30 leaving every evening, so I was almost there,” said Safin, “You play against (Djokovic), and the last time I won two matches in a row was… I don’t remember. So what do you expect?”
“I didn’t play great for a long time. I don’t even remember how it feels. It was a long time ago I played like that and I hope I can get better.”
Safin thrashed Pete Sampras to win the U.S. Open in 2000 and topped the rankings soon afterwards.
Eight years later and despite a victory at the Australian Open in 2005, his ranking is down at 75 and this season has been dismal, until now.
With the win, Safin has a third round meeting with Italian Andreas Seppi, a repetition of his run to the last eight in 2001.