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toray pan pacific open tennis.
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Showing posts with label
toray pan pacific open tennis.
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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)
Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina cruised into the final of the Pan Pacific Open with straight-set victories Saturday.
Fifth-seeded Kuznetsova, who upset top-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinal round beat Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 7-6 (5), 6-2, while Safina routed compatriot Nadia Petrova 6-1, 6-0 in the second semifinal.
Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito was in the crowd for the match between Kuznetsova and Jankovic yesterday. After the matches, players hit balls into the stands; Kuznetsova hit
one to Naruhito, and he made an impressive catch. "I'm enjoying myself here," Kuznetsova said.
"I'm trying to do new things and it's exciting to be on the court."
After a closely contested first set, Kuznetsova took control in the second, breaking Srebotnik three times.
Kuznetsova broke Srebotnik with a backhand down the line in the seventh game to go ahead 5-2. She raced to a 40-love lead in the next game but Srebotnik fought back to deuce before Kuznetsova won her fourth match point.
Kuznetsova, who won the U.S. Open in 2004, will be bidding for her first title of 2008. Her last Tier I singles title was in 2006 in Miami.
Last week she helped Russia to a win over Spain in the Fed Cup final Monday and said that win boosted her heading to Japan.
"Winning the Fed Cup has given me more motivation," Kuznetsova said.
It was Safina's first win in six matches against Petrova."There is a first time for everything in life and today was my first win over her," said Safina, who is fifth in the WTA rankings and had seven aces.
"We've had some good matches in the past," added Safina.
"I wasn't like I was thinking that I had never beaten her before, the strategy was to just go out there and hit the ball as hard as I can."
Safina wasn't thinking too much about Sunday's final being an all-Russian affair.
"It's just another match," Safina said.
"We know each other well and I hope it's going to be a good match that we both can enjoy."
The 2008 champion at this Tier I hardcourt tournament will collect $196,900.
(Via International Herald Tribune)
(Images via Yahoo! Sports, Toray PPO website, Sony Ericsson WTA website)
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 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.
