Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Thrill Ride almost derailed by Vinci

She's at it again. Dinara Safina came within a hair of going out in the second round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open today. Her challenger was the often-dangerous Roberta Vinci, who came close to breaking Safina to win the second set, and who served for the match in that set. Vinci was also up a break in the final set, but stilll could not defeat the world number 1, who, after double-faulting 10 times, took the match, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

15th seed Dominika Cibulkova was upset today in the first round by Peng Shaui, and 10th seed Nadia Petrova was upset by Alona Bondarenko, who served superbly against one of the better tour servers. A bit of a surprise (well, to me) was Sybille Bammer's defeat of Zheng Jie (6-2, 4-6, 6-2), and 6th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova had to work hard to defeat Lucie Safarova, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6. The Russian hit 10 aces.

In doubles, 6th seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder were upset by Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-4, 6-2.

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