Tennis queen Safina steamrollers into second round

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 9:13 PM Posted by Beijing News




Russia's Dinara Safina celebrated her first match as world number one by needing just 51 minutes to blitz Italy's Sara Errani 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of Stuttgart's WTA tournament on Tuesday.

The Russian dominated to win the first set in just 26 minutes against Errani, ranked 37th, and it took the 21-year-old Italian 40 minutes to even win a game as the Russian hit five aces in her opening match here.

With plenty of power at the baseline blended with some delicate dropshots Safina, who turned 23 on Monday, began her Stuttgart campaign in style at the first indoor stadium on the WTA tour to host a clay-court tournament.

"I was quite nervous before the match, I was trying to do everything right and stay focused - it went well," said Safina, who will play France's Alize Cornet or Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in the second round.

"I served well and I just want to enjoy my day off and rest up before the rest of the matches.

"It's the perfect preparation here for Roland Garros which starts on May 23, it's fast like the courts in Paris and because it is indoors, you don't get the rain delays."

In contrast, Olympic champion Elena Dementieva needed more than two hours to survive a scare from local heroine Anna-Lena Groenefeld before winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 earlier in the day.

Having had few problems in the first set, the Russian pin-up was put under pressure in the second and could only defend one of the three break points against her.

But the Russian, who won gold at the Beijing Olympic Games last August, regained control in the third set before admitting she had found it hard going.

"It was a difficult match to play, she never lets you get into a rhythm," complained the 27-year-old.

"I lost my concentration in the second set and she was hitting the ball really hard.

"A first round match is always tough, especially as it was my first experience on clay for a while, so the second round should get better."

In the other first round matches, eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland needed a first set-tie break against Aleksandra Wozniak before her comfortable 7-6 7/2, 6-0 victory over the Canadian.

China's Na Li beat compatriot Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-3 while Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova also took her place in the second round with a strong comeback as she won 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 against Italy's Alberta Brianti.

Seventh-seed Caroline Wozniacki booked her second-round berth as she beat Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic in straight sets while France's Marion Bartoli beat Croatia's Karolina Sprem 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 just before midnight.

Earlier, former world number one Jelena Jankovic admitted thoughts of defending the WTA title she won here last year are far from her mind as she looks to recapture her lost form.

The 24-year-old had a glittering 2008 season when she reached the US Open final as well as the last four at both Roland Garros and the Australian Open to finish the year as world number one.

"When I walk on court I will have some memories of how well I was playing last year, but I need to get back to that level," she said with the next Grand Slam - the French Open - due to begin on May 23.





Rietschel

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)