Cincinnati 2010: Dinara Safina and Ana Ivanovic win their opening matches
The runner up of the last year’s Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open tournament, Dinara Safina won her opening first round match in Cincinnati. The tournament that started on Monday highlighted Dinara Safina and Roberta Vinci along with some other players in its first day clash.
Safina, came here as the top ranked tennis player just a year ago however she fell down to Jelena Jankovic in the final battle. Anyhow, the former number one Dinara started off this season’s tournament with a victory over the crafty Italian in a two setter clash. The final match score was 7-5, 6-4.
Safina showed some reflections of her fighting charm that took her to a total of three major finals so far in her career. While commenting on her game after the victory, Safina said, “I did commit few mistakes as well however I played some shots extremely well. At this stage of the championship, what matters most at the end of the day is the number of victories and nothing else”, Safina said. "It was a tight clash however I am glad that I didn’t give up and performed at my very best”, she added.
As a result of this victory, Dinara Safina will face the fourth seeded Kim Clijsters in her next round clash. Kim, who was granted a first round exit in the tournament, is also looking forward to perform well in Cincinnati. She returned to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour here previous season, falling to Dinara in the quarter final round. The Russian has succeeded in both of their previous two clashes, in spite of the fact that Kim is ahead of Safina in their head to head with 6-2.
About seven days ago in San Diego, Safina knocked down Alona Bondarenko who was playing in her very first match as a married woman. The married women however won her Monday’s match after knocking down Dominika Cibulkova in a three setter clash.
As far as some other matches on Monday are concerned, the thirteenth seeded Shahar Pe’er as well as the sixteen seeded Marion Bartoli won their respective matches however the fourteen seeded Aravane Rezai who previously won her fourth career trophy in Bastad was knocked down by Bojana Jovanovski, a Serbian qualifier in a total of three sets.
"I have faced total tough defeats over the fourteen days, particularly that previous week when I was beaten by Daniela. Therefore, I am glad to be in the next round of the tournamnet”, said Bartoli, who will face Bondarenko in her second round match in Cincinnati.
"I was knocked down by Alona the last time we met in Toronto. I totally messed up that clash”. At the moment Bartoli is ahead of Bondarenko in their head to head clash with 3-1.
In another match, Ana Ivanovic successfully defeated the ninth seeded Victoria Azarenka in a three setter clash. Ana was just two points short of victory during the second set of the match when the former top ranked Ana came back strongly to defeat her in two attempts this year.
"I am completely aware of the fact that I am the ability to knock down the top ranked tennis players however today was not my day, that all what I can say as after coming so close to victory, I lost the match in the end”, said Azarenka. “Any how I still have time to work on my game and improve it prior to the start of the final Grand Slam of the season, the United States Open in New York. I will definitely work hard to play at my very best over there. As far as Ana is concerned, I wish her all the very best for the remaining matches of the competition”, she added.
Ana, on the other hand, while commenting on her victory said, “the crowd really supported me throughout the match and it actually boosted up my confidence to a great deal of extent”, she added.
Moreover, Sara Errani, Alisa Kleybanova, Yaroslava Shvedova as well as the qualifiers including Monica Niculescu, Vera Dushevina, Nuria Llagostera Vives, Akgul Amanmuradova as well as Ayumi Morita also won their first round clashes in Cincinnati.
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