World No.167 Roman Safiullin turned out to be the hero of the Russian team on day two of the ATP Cup after the defending champions endured a roller-coaster encounter against France.
The team at one stage was billed as a heavy favourite to lift the title once again in Sydney but a series of positive COVID-19 cases in recent days resulted in the absence of Andrey Rublev and Aslan Karatsev. Taking their place is 24-year-old Safiullin who is yet to break into the world’s top 100 and has only played in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament twice.
Nevertheless, the Russian managed to get his country off to the best start by stunning world No.58 Arthur Rinderknech 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, after more than two hours of play. In the decider Safiullin raced to a 4-0 lead which was enough of a margin for him to secure the victory. He impressively saved 15 out of the 19 break points he faced and won 63% of his first service points.
“It feels great to win the first match, to get the point for the team,” Safiullin said. “The second set was really tight and I tried to make as many balls as I could and put pressure on him.
“Before the match Daniil (Medvedev) said to go out and play with no pressure, just to play my best and fight for every point.”
Safiullin is a a former world No.2 junior player who won the 2015 Australian Open Boys’ singles title.
Despite the early victory, Russian suffered a blow when the star of their team lost a marathon encounter against Ugo Humbert. US Open champion Daniil Medvedev is the highest ranked player participating in this year’s tournament but fell 6-7(5), 7-5 7-6(2), to the Frenchman. A frustrating outcome for the world No.2 who was leading the match by a set and 3-0, and was also up a break in the final set.
“It was a very tough match. I am very happy,” Humbert said. “I had some opportunities in the first set and I just tried to stay relaxed and focussed on what I had to do. It was a great match.”
With all to play for, Safiullin returned to the court alongside Medvedev to play in the doubles rubber. The duo battled to a 6-4, 6-4, win over Fabrice Martin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to clinch the tie 2-1 in their favour.
Russia will play Italy and Australia later in the week.
