By Foster Niumata
The shower came, the shower passed, much like the untamed storm in Marat Safin's racket.
Brett Steven weathered the humidity and surge of tension posed by an 18-year-old he agrees is destined for the top-10, and took care of the rookie Safin 7-5 6-2 yesterday to reach his fifth
Heineken Open quarter-final in seven years at Stanley St.
Before heading home, Steven did not know who he was going to meet next - big improver Mariano Zabaleta and two-time tour titleist Magnus Norman had yet to start their match and he was in too good a mood to care.
"I'm feeling good," said Steven, who is into his first ATP quarters since June.
"Someone's going to have to play well to beat me."
Trying to be that someone will be Zabaleta, a 20-year-old from Buenos Aires who a year ago was rehabilitating arm injuries and was ranked 252th. Now he is 59th, having arrived at 3am on Monday from Doha, where he reached the quarters, and rallied from sets down to beat Wimbledon quarter-finalist Davide Sanguinetti and Norman.
Steven has not previously met Zabaleta, nor Safin beforehand. Yesterday, he braced for the lightning from the latest teenage titan, but by the end of the first set, he had his eye in.
The power impressed Steven, but if you want to put him out of his hometown Open you had better keep the ball in the court.
Safin was putting less than half his first serves in, and Steven was eventually coming in behind his block returns and posing the challenge: pass me if you can.
Safin had no answer.
Three double-faults by the Russian gave Steven a chance to break at 6-5. He scrambled to take it. Stanley St went nuts.
Steven, serving beautifully, unexpectedly lapsed to be 1-2 down in the second set, but with drizzle falling, and Steven rushing in relentlessly, Safin was on the verge of losing his serve twice at 2-3 15-40 when rain set in.
The delay lasted 90 minutes. The match was over in another 13. Safin, in failing to grab two breakpoints, angrily flung his racket on the court. It lifted Steven, who played his first Open when Safin was five. Safin conceded on a double-fault.
Steven is the lowest-ranked player left in the last eight at 100th, but he is the most motivated.
"To me this is like a mini-Wimbledon," he said. "A lot of players aren't as up for this tournament as I am. I've got everything in my favour with the crowd behind me. It's easy for me to be fighting for every point and probably for someone like Marat, it's a way to get to Australia and get some matches.
"For me it's really important to do well here. I felt like this was a really good performance."
Steven's half of the draw has no seeds. Romanian Andrei Pavel and the Netherlands' Sjeng Schalken are the other quarter in Steven's draw.
The bottom half is top-heavy, with favourite and second seed Felix Mantilla facing eighth seed Dominik Hrbaty, both making their second successive Open quarters.
Mantilla was fortunate that Romanian Adrian Voinea, who earlier buried Jim Courier, was prone to spectacular errors. He is 2-1 up on Hrbaty.
Fifth seed Tommy Haas will continue to be seen only at night, this time against Frenchman Guillaume Raoux.
Pictured: Brett Steven. PICTURE / FOTOPRESS
By Foster Niumata
The shower came, the shower passed, much like the untamed storm in Marat Safin's racket.
Brett Steven weathered the humidity and surge of tension posed by an 18-year-old he agrees is destined for the top-10, and took care of the rookie Safin 7-5 6-2 yesterday to reach his fifth
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