Dinara Safina beats Svetlana Kuznetsova to win Pan Pacific Open, moves up to no. 3

Dinara Safina will move up to No. 3 in the world rankings after dominating Russian compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3 Sunday to win the Pan Pacific Open.

The victory gave the fourth-seeded Safina her fourth WTA singles title this season, tying her with No. 1 Serena Williams for the most this year.

“I’ve played the best tennis this week I’ve ever played,” Safina said.

“It’s always nice to move up in the rankings and hopefully I can keep improving.”

Safina broke with a cross-court forehand from the baseline to go up 3-2 in the second set, and then broke for the third time in the final game, winning the match when the fifth-seeded Kuznetsova sent a forehand volley wide.

Safina has also won this year in Los Angeles, Montreal and Berlin.

She said pressuring Kuznetsova was the key on Sunday.

“I knew I had to keep the pressure on her from the start,” said Safina, who had seven aces.

“She is a good player and can put pressure on you so it was important for me to take my chances early.”

It was the 10th meeting between the two Russians, with Safina having won six of them.

Kuznetsova, a former U.S. Open champion, was bidding for her first title in 2008.

“It’s disappointing but I’ll try to be honest and positive,” Kuznetsova said.

“I came here after the clay court Fed Cup and really didn’t expect to get to the final so this isn’t a bad result for me.”

Kuznetsova said Safina can become the world’s top player.

“She has a chance to reach No. 1,” Kuznetsova said.

“She works hard and has a lot of energy. She has a bigger stroke than Jelena (Jankovic), and Serena (Williams) doesn’t play in that many tournaments these days.”

The doubles final, which followed after the singles final, pitted No.2-seeded duo Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur against unseeded team Petrova and Vania King.

And it was the underdog pairing of King and Petrova that prevailed, beating the two-time Grand Slam-winning team of Raymond and Stosur in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.

King and Petrova won their first title as a team; it was King's fifth individual Tour doubles title and Petrova's 14th.

(Images by Yahoo! Sports, Sony Ericsson WTA website)

Venus Williams: The Queen of Wimbledon

Now, my chance to win a trip to London under the ESPNStar.com's Thai Airways contest is brighter as I've predicted Venus Williams win at the Wimbledon women singles.

Venus proves she is really comfortable playing on grass court by winning her 5th Wimbledon women singles trophy! Not only that, it's a double celebration for Venus as she also won the women's doubles title!

“I’m definitely more in tune with my sister’s feelings because one of us has to win and one of us has to lose,” the No. 7-seeded Venus said. “You could never detract from winning a Wimbledon, so of course it doesn’t detract from that. But I’m definitely thinking about how my sister’s feeling.”

I think it's bullshit when people said the sisters will sit down together with their parents and discuss who's going to win at Wimbledon. Serena lost to her big sister Venus 5-7, 4-6, as though she had just finished losing to a stranger.

“It’s definitely not any easier,” Serena said. “I just look at her as another opponent at the end of the day.”

About 3.5 hours after the women singles final ended, the sisters returned to the same court, except now they were playing on the same side of the net, and they beat Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-2 to win the women’s doubles title.

On the men's doubles final, Daniel Nestor celebrates with Nenad Zimonjic after winning 7-6 (14-12), 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-3, in a match that lasted 2 hours, 39 minutes against Kevin Ullyett and Jonas Bjorkman.

(Images by AFP/POOL/Glyn Kirk/Ian Walton/Julian Finney/Getty Images)