Dinara Safina reaches third round of Rogers Cup in Montreal
Dinara Safina knocked down Nadia Petrova to reach the third round of the Rogers Cup women tennis tournament in Montreal on Wednesday. The final match score was 7-5, 4-6 and 7-5.
The 24-year-old Russian, after beating her eighteen seeded opponent on Wednesday, commented on her own rankings by saying, “It’s easy to go down in the world rankings while it is really hard to regain your lost spot”.
Dinara, who was the top ranked tennis player from the women’s side last year, has dropped to as low as world number 70. However, she did well on her way to improve her rankings after defeating Nadia Petrova in yesterdays match. As a result of this victory, the Russian has made her way into the round of sixteen at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Dinara trailed 4-1 in the final set but she eventually came out on top.”I had an opportunity in almost every single game of the match I am glad that I made effective use of the chances provided to me by Petrova”, she said .
Safina, while commenting on the crowd, said that fans at the stadium really supported her throughout the match and that boosted up her confidence to a great deal. "I think the crowd still remembers that I captured the title here back in 2007. That's the most encouraging factor when you step on a court and the spectators are there, backing you up”, she added.
As a result of this victory, Dinara Safina will meet seventh seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone in her next round match on Thursday. Francesca made her way into the third round of the tournament after defeating Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova in a total of three sets. The final match score was 6-4, 6-7 and 6-2.
After her victory against Makarova, Schiavone said, "I really like the way I battled today. To win the big matches on consistent basis, you have to battle extremely hard”.
In other action on Wednesday, fifth seeded Kim Clijsters barely managed to beat America’s Bethanie Mattek in a total of three sets. The final match score was 4-6, 6-4 and 6-3. Although Mattek had a couple of chances to knock Kim out of the match but she couldn’t win in the end.
Kim, when questioned about what was going through her mind when she was down during the second set of the match, said “I was just trying to focus and not to lose any more points. I didn’t give her any more chances and that earned me victory in the end. It was a great match and I am glad that I won it in the end”.
In another match, Caroline Wozniacki, the second seeded player defeated Patty Schnyder from Switzerland in a two setter clash on Wednesday. The final match score was 7-5 and 7-5.
The tenth seeded Victoria Azarenka from Belarus defeated Maria Kirilenko in a total of two sets. The final match score was 6-4 and 6-1. The thirteen seeded Yanina Wickmayer from Belgium lost her match to Agnes Szavay from Hungary with a final match score of 6-7, 6-3, and 6-4.
Agnieszka Radwanska, the seventh seeded player from Poland also claimed a comfortable 6-0, 6-2 victory over Vania King where as the fifteen seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta defeated Alisa Kleybanova from Russia in a total of two sets. The final match score read 6-3 and 6-3.
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