Serena, Safina sweat before escaping with wins
By DPA, IANSTuesday, January 12, 2010
SYDNEY - Top seed Serena Williams Tuesday beat the 35 Celsius-plus summer heat in her first competitive outing of 2010, beginning her preparation for an Australian Open title defence by advancing at the Medibank International.
Williams crushed Hopman Cup winner Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-2, 6-2 for a place in the quarter-finals three days after the Spaniard and her teammate, Tommy Robredo, lifted the crown for their nation in Perth.
But world No.1 Williams was clearly unimpressed with past history as she moved through in 72 minutes with four aces and five double-faults. The American next faces Russian Vera Dushevina.
“It was a good workout,” Williams said. “It was definitely getting hotter the longer I stayed out. I need to play in the heat as much as I can, so it was OK.”
There was more success for Dinara Safina, the Russian from whom Williams grabbed No.1 one honours in the last week of the past season in October in Doha.
Safina, who cleared up back pain over the holiday break, recovered from 5-0 down in the opening set, eventually schooling Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 7-5, 6-4.
The losing finalist to Williams in last year’s Australian Open was not pleased to have gotten out of the blocks so poorly.
“It was a little bit of slow start, but it was a start,” Safina said. “It was a winning start. I was like mistiming until 5-love [down], but then I found my rhythm and my game.”
There was trouble for third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, upset 7-5, 6-2 by Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
Vera Dushevina beat Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-4 in an all-Russian match-up while Aravane Reza of France put out Agnes Szavay of Hungary 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
On the men’s side, Evgeny Korolev beat American fifth seed Sam Querrey 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 while number six Victor Troicki got past Florent Serra 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
