Sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has reached the final at Indian Wells for the last two years, fell in the second round to wildcard Urszula Radwanska. Top seed Dinara Safina survived a tough test before beating Tsvetana Pironkova.
Kuznetsova was overpowered by the world No.107 Radwanska 6-2 4-6 6-3, despite a comeback in the second set.
Safina saved multiple set points in the first-set tiebreak before easing through the second set and beating the Bulgarian world No.50 7-6(8) 6-2. Safina will meet seed No.28 Shuai Peng of China in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.
Safina, ranked 2nd in the world, can replace Serena Williams atop the WTA Tour rankings by reaching the Indian Wells final, as Williams is not playing the tournament. (sources: ESPN, Reuters, photo by our reader Jacob)
Once more, another mediocre performance from Dina; one would hope that her recent break from Dubai would counteract and alleviate her weaknesses, but unless she can keep ‘surviving’ for the next five matches, all will be futile. Poor Svety, recently her game has been marred by inconsistency, let’s hope she too, can restore her peak form.
Hopefully Dinara Safina will dethrone Serena Williams from the top rank. 😀
Go Dinara!