The first round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open kicked off on Monday and last year's runner-up Dinara Safina was among those making it through to the next round.Safina, who was ranked No.1 in the world here a year ago but lost to Jelena Jankovic in straight sets in the title match, made a winning start to her 2010 campaign edging Roberta Vinci, 7-5 6-4.
Safina showed flashes of the fighting spirit that has taken her to three Grand Slam finals, rallying from 3-5 to win the first set and escaping a 15-40 hole serving 3-4 to win the second set to put the crafty Italian away.
"Some points I didn't play well, some I played really well. At this stage of the tournament, the most important thing is to get the win," Safina said. "It was a tough match but I was happy I stayed positive and gave 100%."
In the second round Safina plays No.4 seed Kim Clijsters, who got a first round bye. Clijsters made her comeback to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour here last year, falling to Safina in the quarterfinals. The Russian has won their last two meetings, though Clijsters leads Safina in the head-to-head, 6-2.
At night, Ana Ivanovic rallied from a 6-2 5-2 deficit to beat No.9 seed and recent Stanford champion Victoria Azarenka, 2-6 7-6(6) 6-2. Azarenka was two points from winning the match three times in the second set but former No.1 Ivanovic fought back to beat her for the second time in two tries this season.
"I'm sure I can come up with better tennis, because today was a little bit of a disaster," Azarenka said. "I have to improve. I have another tournament before the Open and I'm definitely going to work hard to bring my A-game there.Alisa Kleybanova, Yaroslava Shvedova, Sara Errani and qualifiers Vera Dushevina, Ayumi Morita, Monica Niculescu, Akgul Amanmuradova and Nuria Llagostera Vives also won their first round matches.
4 comments:
I don't like Ivanovic I find her to be a big phony and I do have a nickname of her. I'm scratching my head on how Azarenka lost. It was more of Azarenka giving the match away (choking) than Ana winning the match.
I'm liking this tournament a lot of good first round matches, today: Pennetta vs. Jie, Bartoli vs. A. Bondarenko, and the big one today Divapova vs. Sveta. As far as I know this tournament is not being televise in the U.S. :(
I also find Ivanovic "fake" and I really don't like her, It was definatly Azeranka giving they match to Ivanovic not Ivanovic beating Azeranka.
I think this will be a really good tourny, would be better with the Williams' ahaha!
oh really? well I know its not televised in Ausralia either, strange its not televised in US.
The Cinci tourney won't be televised until Thursday. I'll try to catch some action.
Yes, you are right this tourney might have been better with the Williams sisters playing.
BTW the nickname that I gave to Ivanovic, "The Fist Pumping Imbecile". Please let me know if I can use this nickname on your blog, if not is cool, I'll come up with something else.
Atleats it is being televised!
I think so anyway.
I will definatly use it! I have no problem with that at all :)
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