Safin claws to victory, Czechs level with Russia

Marat Safin staged a remarkable comeback to win the opening singles before Radek Stepanek pulled the Czech Republic level at 1-1 in their Davis Cup quarter-final against Russia yesterday.

Former world number one Safin had struggled all season and is ranked 87th in the world but he found his rhythm in the nick of time to wear down Tomas Berdych 6-7 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 in just under four hours to whoops and cheers from the partisan crowd.

"At the start I felt burdened and the first two sets were not so good," Safin said. "But as the match went on I began to return the serve better."

Safin's powerful serves and forehands forced world number nine Berdych on to the defensive during the final three sets of a scrappy encounter in which both players made dozens of unforced errors.

Eventually Safin's brute force overwhelmed Berdych, who would have fancied his chances of giving the Czechs an early lead as he was the in-form player going into the match having reached the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open last week.

In contrast, Safin had won only one match all year - and none since the Australian Open in January.

"He played great," a crestfallen Berdych told reporters. "He showed he is a great player even though he may not have had the results this year."

But world number 28 Stepanek later played a controlled match against Igor Andreev to win 6-3 6-2 6-4 and leave the tie evenly poised ahead of today's doubles match.

Stepanek's serve-and-volley tactics frustrated Andreev, who rarely won a point against Stepanek's serve.

Davydenko is due to partner Mikhail Youzhny in the doubles today against doubles specialists Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner.

The winner of the tie will face either Argentina or Sweden in the semi-finals in September.

Quarter-finals: Russia-Czech Rep. 1-1; Argentina-Sweden 1-1; Germany-Spain 0-2; US-France 1-0.