Safina, Williams Advance at Cincinnati

Venus Williams made her Cincinnati Open debut and was predictably brilliant despite the fact that the evening’s only single match was delayed by 90 minutes because of rain earlier in the schedule.  She faced off against qualifier, Olga Govortsova, and the third-seeded Williams easily won 6-2, 6-2.

Things weren’t as smooth for top-seeded Dinara Safina who seemed to struggle to get control over her game early in the match against unseeded Roberta Vinci.  I don’t know if this had anything to do with the cut to the left hand that Safina suffered opening a coconut last week in Los Angeles but she was uncharacteristically sloppy.  Eventually, she was able to rally and pull off a 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 win.

image: Zuma Press

“It was just a day when everything was going all over the place, except for the tennis court,” Safina said. “He’s like, ‘You realize you can put the ball inside (the lines).’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s what I’m realizing.’  He said, ‘Don’t do anything. Just go deep through the court and let her do something.’ I guess she was not ready to beat me.”

Other results:

• Svetlana Kuznetsova outlasted Lucia Safarova 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4).
• Agnieszka Radwanska advanced with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Ai Sugiyama
• Flavia Pennetta moved on with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Ayumi Morita
• Yanina Wickmayer upset Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-4
• Alona Bondarenko upset Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-3
• Shuai Peng advanced with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Dominika Cibulkova
• Agnes Szavay beat Urszula Radwanska 7-5, 7-5
• Sorana Cirstea eliminated wild-card Meghann Shaughnessy 7-5, 7-5
• Daniela Hantuchova outlasted Sara Errani 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
• Maria Jose Martina Sanchez beat Vera Dushevina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Alisa Kleybanova topped Aravane Rezai 6-3, 6-3
• Sybille Bammer beat Jie Zheng 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
• Maria Kirilenko defeated Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4, 6-1