Dinara Safina and Anabel Medina Garrigues clear their first round matches of the Sony Ericsson Open
Former world number one Dinara Safina of Russia displayed her vintage class to beat the Australian qualifier, Jelena Dokic in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Wednesday evening. The 24-year-old Russian
wrapped up the contest in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, taking just one hour and twenty eight minutes of play.
The wildcard Safina exhibited a great show of tennis to out play the in-form Aussie and extend her head-to-head career record against her to 3-0 after her victory at Miami. It was the fifth win for the Russian in the running WTA
(Women’s Tennis Association) season, levelling her win-loss ratio to 5-5.
It was an overall low serve game, as the two contestants served at around 55 per cent mark and committed a number of double faults. Safina was better than her opponent in terms of serve, as she fired five aces in the game and coughed
six double faults while delivering 58 per cent first serve. Dokic’s poor serve statistics include nine expensive double faults and 54 per cent first serve.
Dokic was in all sorts of confusion right from the beginning of the contest and dropped her serve early to trail 3-2. Safina crafted 10 break opportunities but converted a mere two out of them to seal the first set 6-4, leading
the match 1-0. Dokic’s poor run continued in the next set as well and two more break points from the Russian competitor marked an end to the contest at 6-4, ejecting the Aussie from the opening round of the Sony Ericsson Open.
Safina will square off against her fellow compatriot and the world number three Vera Zvonareva in the next round. Zvonareva got a bye to play in the second round of the tournament.
In another match of the evening, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain crushed the Russian qualifier, Ksenia Pervak in the first round matchup. The Spanish had less trouble in outplaying the 19-year-old Russian in the game and took
88 minutes to conclude her straight sets victory at 6-1, 6-2. Garrigues registered her sixth victory in the running WTA season after beating the Russian competitor at Miami.
Garrigues appeared unstoppable in the contest as she completely blew away Pervak to advance to the second round of the tournament. She fully capitalized upon the errors of the Russian teenager, who spilled six double faults in
the game and broke the opponent’s serve just once. The Spanish cracked a total of six serve breaks in the competition, three in each set, to bag victory over Pervak.
The unseeded Spanish won 64, while her opponent took a mere 37 points out of a total of 101 points in the game. Garrigues earned a berth in the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open, where she will be taking on the world number
11, Shahar Peer of Israel, in this week. Peer was awarded a bye to the second round of the WTA event.
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