"He's the future of the game. He's going to win many majors. It reminded me of when I was 19. I steam rolled Andre. Well, I got steam rolled today. It was weird. Usually at the end of the ceremony, I get to hold up the big trophy."
-- Pete Sampras after losing to Marat Safin in the 2000 U.S. Open

NEW YORK -- It looked for all the world to be a paradigm shift in men's tennis. Marat Safin, a 20-year-old Russian, obliterated the man considered by many to be history's best tennis player. In straight sets. His combination of size and speed and an astonishingly deft touch -- at least on that autumn day -- was, frankly, breathtaking.

	Safin was the last man standing, but he wasn't pleased with his first round.

Safin's head, on the other hand, was largely uncharted territory. History now suggests that it is the one part of Safin's strapping body that has prevented him from evolving into the next Pete Sampras. Two years after the breakthrough at the National Tennis Center, his Grand Slam singles titles total still stands at one.

Safin's ongoing struggle to produce that kind of consistent brilliance was underlined by what turned out to be an epic match with Nicolas Kiefer on Tuesday. Safin prevailed in a wild four-hour, 31-minute affair that was visited by two racket fractures, four wrenching thigh cramps (remarkably, out of a possible total of four) and the chilling sight of two wheelchairs lined up side by side in the tunnel under Arthur Ashe Stadium as the asphalt gladiators limped into a fifth-set tiebreaker.

That Safin won 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4) was almost beside the point. He is the tournament's second seed, which means that, technically, he is the next best thing after top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt. Based on those early returns, it won't be enough. He is already physically "completely dead," mentally unstable and now the specter of Gustavo Kuerten looms in the second round. Hewitt, by contrast, lost a total of eight games in his straight-sets victory over Nicolas Coutelet.

"I was choking so bad, it was embarrassing," said Safin, who has always been disarmingly honest about his own inadequacies. "I was too nervous.

"Terrible match. Couldn't be worse, no? It's the worst thing for the first round."

It has been a quirky two years for Safin. He made it back to the semifinals here in 2001, losing in yin-yang fashion to Sampras, but finished as the world's No. 11 ranked player. This season, he reached the finals at the Australian Open, only to lose to unheralded Thomas Johansson. Safin made it to the semifinals at the French Open but was unstrung by clay wizard Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets. That's three semis or better in the seven Grand Slams since he made his name in Flushing.

The results in the lower-orbit tournaments that flesh out the schedule of a tennis professional have been less grand. Safin has won all of two tournaments in two seasons -- Tashkent (Israel) and St. Petersburg (Russia). The total this year: zero.

Nevertheless, Safin's big serve and thundering groundstrokes have left him as the No. 2-ranked player on the ATP behind Hewitt. He beats enough of the Michael Llordas and Wayne Ferreiras of the world to maintain his edge over the rest of the Tour's would-be challengers. With Sampras and Agassi clearly in remission, Kuerten still displaying an allergic reaction to hard courts, Patrick Rafter semi-retired and young Americans Andy Roddick and James Blake not quite ready for prime time -- Tommy Haas is the Open's No. 3 seed for goodness sake! -- Safin seemingly is the only option to bring down Hewitt, who has won two of the past four Slams.

On Tuesday, the burden of expectation seemed to weigh heavily. Safin won the first set handily, but Kiefer took the second and third sets by identical 6-4 scores, and Safin found himself down to three usable rackets and succumbing to an increasing level of hysteria.

Safin came back to level the match by winning the fourth set and Kiefer was already limping noticeably. The fifth and final frame was a gem. Safin had two match points in the 12th game, and with Kiefer struggling to merely stand, it appeared to be over. But Kiefer made a brilliant back hand volley to save the first and watched Safin's lazy backhand sail long on the second. Safin's looping (and long) backhand forced the dramatic tie-breaker.

When they changed ends at 3-3, Kiefer could barely execute the walk. He had fought hard to ignore his failing legs to that point, but he was clearly affected when his off-balance forehand hit the middle of the net. The pivotal point came next, when Kiefer threw up a serviceable lob and Safin stretched all of his 6-foot-4, 195 pound-body to render a scorching overhead. That made it 5-3 and Kiefer was done. On the next point, after hitting another ball into the net, Kiefer fell to the ground writhing in pain.

"I wanted to hit the ball," Kiefer explained. "From the head, I wanted to hit, but my legs didn't move."

Was it the calf, the thigh, the groin?

"Everywhere," the 25-year-old German replied. "Lower body."

Safin, in a refreshing display of sportsmanship, ran quickly to Kiefer's aid, calling for the trainers. After a few minutes, the match concluded with another netted ball that wasn't even close.

After the match, Safin blamed his recent lack of activity -- he last played 22 days previously in Cincinnati before a rib injury and illness forced him to withdraw the next week from Indianapolis.

Late in the interview the inevitable subject of Sampras came up, as it usually does when Safin is being interviewed. Because of that memorable 2000 final, they will always be linked in that dazzling moment.

"He's the greatest one," Safin said of Sampras. "He's the best the best player of all times. For me, the way he controls tennis for last six years, is amazing. Six years No. 1 in the world, 13 Grand Slams. Just I cannot even talk about him. It's like talking about God, you know?

"The guy is the best one. I don't think that there will be another Pete Sampras."

Coming from Safin, the man who so many believed would become king, it was a revealing comment. Then again, unlike Sampras, he has more than a few seasons ahead of him. Afterall, Sampras was a month shy of his 22nd birthday when he won his second Grand Slam.

Safin was asked what he planned to do after his tennis career.

He laughed.

"I'm still, 22, man," he said. "I just start my first career. I have to finish first this one, then I will think about other one."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.