Tennis Blog

Safina becomes heavy favorite for Olympic gold

BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Russia's world No. 7 Dinara Safina has become a heavy favorite for the Beijing Olympic tennis event as she beat Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-1 to claim the Montreal Cup on Sunday and her second title in a row.

Safina, who is enjoying one of the most productive runs of her career, needed just one hour and eight minutes to beat unseeded Cibulkova. Last week, she claimed a WTA title in Los Angeles.

"I think my experience helped me a bit in the final, I'm sure Dominika's time will come soon though," an elated Safina told the WTA official website.

"It's the first time in my life I have won tournaments back-to-back, Usually I would win a tournament and the next week I would lose in the first round.

"So I was happy when I won the first match and then I was just taking it one match at a time."

Safina becomes the fourth player this season to win three Tour singles titles, following Maria Sharapova (Australian Open, Doha and Amelia Island), Serena Williams (Bangalore, Miami and Charleston) and Agnieszka Radwanska (Pattaya City, Istanbul and Eastbourne).

She has 28 wins and just three losses in the past three months. During that stretch she defeated nine players ranked in the top 10.

Safina will compete in the Olympic tennis event slated for Aug. 10-17 with compatriots Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva.

Russia has just lost world number four Maria Sharapova due to her shoulder injury.

Marat Safin advances to Los Angeles second round

Marat Safin, 5th seed, made it to the second round in Los Angeles win a 2 set win over John Isner. Safin needed only 1 break on each set to make it through.
Safin was not able to make it past the second round in Montreal and at Cincinnati but he will try to make it much further here.

But first the former world number 1 and 2 times Grand Slam Champion will need to get past Wayne Odesnik Odesnik who beat Bobby Reynolds 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in an all-American first round match.

Vince Spadea set up a second round meeting with Mardy Fish, 6th seed, by defeating Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. This is Spadea's 11th appearance in Los Angeles. He best results was when he reached the quarterfinals in 2003 and in 2007.


Amer Delic, a qualifer, enjoy a very nice win today. He saved all 5 break point he faced and converted 2 of the 6 break opportunities he had to scores a win over Dudi Sela for 6-4, 6-4.

Dusan Vemic enter in the main draw as a lucky loser and he earned a second round clash with Andy Roddick, top seed, after fighting during 3 sets to win 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 over Sam Warburg, a qualifier, in two hours and 54 minutes.

Andrea Stoppini, was other qualifier that took his place in the second round. The Italian won his third career ATP match in just 61 minutes against Igor Kunitsyn 6-1, 6-3. Stoppini next plays Juan Martin del Potro, the third seed who enters Los Angeles with a 10-match winning streak after taking back to back title in July.



Information from www.atptennis.com
Photo by Jonathan Moore/Getty Images