The 12th-seeded Safina lost first, falling to No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo 6-2, 6-3 in the quarter-finals Wednesday. Then her older brother got beaten by No. 14 Tommy Haas 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the fourth round.

Safin slammed his racket to the court with both hands after a bad shot. Safina also gave her racket a ride.

So, did she get the habit from her brother?

``Might be instinct,'' she said.

The 20-year-old Safina said the 26-year-old Safin has talked to her about such tantrums.

``If I am doing it too much, before he was telling me like, `Listen, this is too much,'' she said. ``It's OK if you hit it once in a set, but not every game.''

As her brother put it, ``Some things I didn't really like.''

``I really told her ... it's unacceptable from her side to do some things on the court, what she was doing before,'' he said.

They agree, meanwhile, that she doesn't tell him what to do.

``He's too old,'' Safina said.

``It would never happen,'' Safin said.

Safin, who won the 2000 U.S. Open and the 2005 Australian Open, said he doesn't feel it's his place to be advising his sister because he hasn't been playing in top form.

``She's doing much better than me,'' he said. ``She made the quarter-finals. She's basically on her way to become a top 10 player in a couple of weeks. So I'm not worried about her. I should worry about a little bit more myself.''

Currently ranked No. 104, Safin sat out the second half of the 2005 season nursing an injured left knee.

Safin believes that reaching the fourth round at the Open was a step in the right direction.

``If you look at the big picture, the way I played during last six months, right now I'm playing some of my best tennis,'' he said. ``I couldn't think that I would beat anybody coming to the U.S. Open. The way I played the whole summer was terrible.''