Top seed Dinara Safina was almost taken out in the first round of the US Open, while her fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded sixth, advanced to the second round much more easily.
The world No.1 Safina double faulted to lose the first set tiebreak, having had four set points, to 167th-ranked Olivia Rogowska of Australia. Safina then hit back to win the second set, but again had to dig deep in the third set to eventually clinch a 6-7(5) 6-2 6-4 victory.
Sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, was broken early in her first-round match against Julia Goerges, but recovered to score a 6-3 6-2 victory.
Safina’s struggle in the first round has only confirmed how vulnerable even the top players are, showing the absolute openness of the women’s draw.
The match between Dinara and Olivia R. was an ugly match. It was a parade of unforced errors in between well played points.
Possible opponent for Dinara in the next round Ur Rad.
So much talk about Wozniacki wearing the Stella McCurse outfit, I was not impress with the color. As a relative of mine would say, “It was the color of fart”. 😛 Excuse the expression. It seems that the Stella McCurse’s skirt and the tennis shorts were longer than the regular Addidas outfits (skirts and tennis shorts). The regular Addidas outfit that Wozniacki wore were so short that you could see the pimples on her butt. 😛
I knew nobody would pull off Stella’s outfits as well as Kirilenko. Wozniacki is pretty, but Kirilenko looks as if she were born in Stella’s designs.
Marija, this is actually the first time I’ve been concerned about Dina; could it be that she will emulate her brother’s career, with moments of greatness scintillating in the air, only to plummmet into a heap of grey ashes which will plague her career? In the same way that Marat was known for his fluctuating success?
Oh and about vulnerability, I agree and disagree, at this stage yes Safina is vulnerable, which is quite absurd as she is the top seed, no.1 ranked player in addition to the fact that it had just been the first round. I disagree as no one seems to be struggling- even Shriekapova had a brilliant straight sets victory.
OMG- IVANOVIC LOST IN THE FIRST ROUND!
I was not impressed by Divapova on the first set. She made too many mistakes on serve and her shots were not accurate. On the second set I thought Divapova played much better, it helped that she played a cup cake that was serving pop corn for Divapova to devour. I’m still not impress by her footwork.
I can’t say that I’m surprise that Ivanovic lost, her game and her team have been in disarray for the last couple of months.
When I watched the Safina vs. Rogowska match, I went in thinking it would be a complete walk over. Much to my surprise, she barely made it through to the next round. It was almost laughable at how poorly she played, and it was funny to see her coach watch in complete disgust. I sure hope Safina pulls her act together and starts hitting those big shots I’m used to seeing. And yes, Ivanovic out in the first round was quite a shocker too. I’ll leave those comments to myself….
Olivia is amazing, she’s one of my favorites one. She wasn’t scared of Safina at all, always going for her shots, sometimes it looks like she doesn’t even think that the balls go all over the place. But love her winners, love it. Definitely the one to watch. And she was awesome after she lost the match, still smiling, waving and blowing kisses. 😛
Good to see Maria win in straight sets. Only four double faults. Her return-serves were God-like as always. And I cannot believe how many times Maria went to the net and scored 15 out of 20 points! She’s slowly getting back to where she was. Good luck against Christina McHale! 😀
“..she’s one of my favorites [now]”.
A typing error from my previous post, I had to correct that. 😛
Oh Teerin, I feel guilt I still haven’t covered Maria at the US Open. 😛 I had very little time.
Zuleika, Dementieva lost in the second round… talking about vulnerability.