Safin Crushes Djokovic at Wimbledon

Marat Safin turned back the clock on Wimbledon's Center Court to demolish third seed Novak Djokovic. The Russian former world No1 triumphed 6-4, 7-6, 6-2, producing a masterclass of brutal serves and heavyweight ground strokes that had the Serb reeling. In the end it was all too much. Djokovic conceded with a feeble double-fault into the net.

Safin remains one of the great enigmas of world tennis. When he destroyed Pete Sampras in the 2000 US Open final, a glittering future seemed assured. Even as recently as 2005, he seemed the man most likely to break the Federer dominance, up-ending the Swiss on his way to winning the Australian Open.

Since then, however, he has found himself forced to the sidelines as Djokovic and Rafael Nadal stole his thunder. Today's victory had a definite whiff of revenge. It was a good old fashioned pasting.

After exchanging breaks early in the first set, the Russian went into overdrive. By contrast, Djokovic appeared edgy and intimidated, struggling to match Safin from the baseline and frequently rocked back on his heels when the Russian teed off on his returns. The writing was on the wall when he slid to 1-6 in the second set tie-break. Safin simply opened his shoulders and finished him off.

Djokovic was a semi-finalist here last year, and many tipped him to go further this time. But the script has now been rewritten, with the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic stranglehold broken by one of the game's mightiest, most unpredictable talents. Safin moves through to the third round. He shook his fist as he left the court.