Analysis for Safin-Wawrinka (ATP Wimbledon)

Head-to-head record 0:2

Safin is known for his emotional outbursts during matches, and has smashed numerous rackets. He frequently verbally berates himself for lost points, speaking in the languages of Russian, Spanish and English. He is also known for having arguments with the chair umpires. Safin's game is based around his physical size and strength to outplay his opponents generally with big strokes and pace. Although Safin is 193 cm tall, he has excellent footwork and footspeed on all surfaces unlike other players of his height. Lack of consistency and focus has been described as Safin's weakness. However when Safin is mentally fit, he possesses a very powerful all-round game that is capable of defeating most opponents on virtually any surface. Although Safin is a big hitter from both wings, a big server and a solid volleyer, he considers grass his least favorite surface which has been generally dominated by players who have playing styles similar to Safin. Safin's best performance at the Wimbledon was reaching the quarterfinals in 2001. He dismissed his performance in 2001 as a result of luck. Safin says that "It's difficult to break serve. It's difficult to play off the baseline because of a lot of bad bounces." He entered the 2008 Wimbledon Championships and defeated Fabio Fognini in straight sets. In the second round he played an outstanding match knocking out the number three seed and 2008 Australian Open Champion Novak Djokovic. In the third round, he played Italian Andreas Seppi and beat him in four sets. This is the first time he had reached the Round of 16 in a major tournament since the 2006 US Open. He will play Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka who has an excellent record this year. He has a similar playing style to Safin and even if he has also never been successful on grass, we think he will be pretty tough opponent for Safin. He played several good matches here and especially his match against Del Potro was amazing. If he manages to keep his serve at the beginning, he will get Safin under pressure and could force the Russian to make numerous unforced errors. We think he should be a slight favourite in this match and odds around 2 are good enough for us.