Daily News Channel
World number one Dinara Safina and most of the top women’s seeds at the U.S. Open coasted through to the second round, but Ana Ivanovic was knocked out by Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko in a playoff thriller that was decided by the last point. Safina, who crashed out of the second round of the Rogers Cup in Canada in late August, survived a scare from Australian teen Olivia Rogowska, winning 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4.
Top seed Serena Williams has crashed out of the Bank of the West Classic, but her older sister Venus reached the semifinals after thrashing Maria Sharapova.
Former winner Serena Williams crashed out of the French Open on Wednesday leaving seventh-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova to face Australian Samantha Stosur for a place in the final at Roland Garros. Kuznetsova fended off a determined fightback by U.S. world number two Williams to reach the last four with a draining 7-6 5-7 7-5 triumph over the 10-time Grand Slam champion in two hours 46 minutes.
Roger Federer and Marat Safin rolled to easy victories Wednesday against main-time opponents to reach the Australian Open’s third round, where the familiarity aspect will be much complex: They’ll be each other. “I’m happy to be Marat; we have some battles,” Federer said after ousting mistake-face down Evgeny Korolev of Russia 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in […]