萨芬首次夺得澳网男单冠军英语美文
Safin beats Hewitt to win Australian Open
万众瞩目的百年澳网男单决赛在萨芬与休伊特之间展开，结果曾获得两度亚军的萨芬终于突破"亚军命"的.禁锢，以总比分3-1击败休伊特，首次夺得澳网男单冠军锦标。休伊特的失利也使得澳大利亚自1976年后仍然未能实现本土选手男单夺冠。
Fourth seed Russia"s Marat Safin and third seed Australia"s Lleyton Hewitt meet at the net after their men"s singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, January 30, 2005.[Reuters]
Stricken by nerves and self-doubt, Marat Safin"s belief returned in the nick of time on Sunday as the Russian beat Lleyton Hewitt, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, to win the centenary Australian Open.
Safin had been convinced he would lose the match after dropping the opening set and trailing 4-1 in the third when his luck suddenly turned around.
He reeled off five games in a row to take a two-sets-to-one lead then broke Hewitt at the start of the fourth set and never looked back.
"This is a huge relief for me, because I didn"t believe I could win," Safin said. "I"ve already lost two finals here before and I started to doubt myself. I thought it was going to happen again."
Safin didn"t know it at the time, but Hewitt was battling his own demons even though he was leading the match.
The Australian sailed into the final on a wave of national patriotism fueled by a never-say-die attitude but he couldn"t muster the energy for one last fight when things started going wrong.
Safin stunned Pete Sampras to win the 2000 US Open but hadn"t won a grand slam since. He lost to Thomas Johansson in the 2002 final, then was beaten by Roger Federer in last year"s final when he was too exhausted to play his best after two epic semi-finals.
"It"s a psychological thing," he said. "I have to forget about the final in 2000 because everything came so easy. I"ve lost two finals since then and I couldn"t see myself winning the grand slams anymore.
Safin went into the final as favorite after his heart-stopping semi-final win over the seemingly invincible Federer but he couldn"t have made a worse start, conceding the opening set after just 23 minutes.
He won the second set with a single break of serve then slipped 4-1 behind in the third after controversially losing his service then calling for a trainer at the change of ends to massage his thighs.
Just when all seemed lost, the momentum suddenly changed. Hewitt was given a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct when he aggressively pointed his finger at a baseline judge and Safin kept his cool to break him twice and win the set.
Safin served 17 of his 18 aces in the last three sets and by the fourth set he was winning most of the long rallies that Hewitt had dominated in the first set.
He grabbed the decisive break of serve in the first game of the fourth set when, during a 30-shot rally, he drew Hewitt to the net and whipped a backhand past his 23-year-old opponent and held his remaining service games without any problem to seal victory.
(Agencies)
Vocabulary:
in the nick of time : (恰好，正是时候)
muster: to cause to come together; gather(召集，鼓起勇气)
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