Safina picks up her 7th career title
Posted on July 28, 2008
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After having ended Jelena Jankovic’s run at number 1 on Saturday, Dinara Safina of Russia managed to win her second title of the year on Sunday, when she downed Flavia Pennetta Italy in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to win the $600,000 East West Bank Classic.
The 22-year-old Russian player picked up her second WTA title of the year, and the seventh career win. Safina closed out the 70-minute match with a crosscourt backhand return for her sixth straight service break.
“I was a little bit nervous but I think I played a pretty good match for the final,” said Safina. “Even my coach said he didn’t know what was going on with me, that I was so quiet on the court. Now I have to continue playing like that and not go back to the old Dinara!”
Safina was the third player this year to win a tournament after facing a match point, though 10th-seeded Pennetta didn’t come close to pressing her that hard. But qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva nearly eliminated fourth-seeded Safina in the third round before she won in a third-set tiebreaker.
“It happens like that sometimes,” Safina said after her seventh career victory on the WTA Tour. “One match, you pull it out somehow and you start the next day to play better. That’s what happened. I was just playing better and better.”
Safina was appearing in her fourth final in her last five tournaments, starting with her biggest win in Berlin, then finals at the French Open and Hertogenbosch. She lost early at Wimbledon.
Pennetta, also a six-time winner on tour, was trying to win her third title this year.
Pennetta, who was playing in her first top-level final is also a six-time winner on tour. The 10th seeded Italian player was trying to win her third title this year, but failed in her attempt to pick up a third title this year, and a seventh career win.
“The first set was pretty close; in the second set I had chances but on the important points she was playing well. She did not give me a lot of chances today,” Pennetta said. “When players like her - good serve, good backhand - are playing well, it is tough to beat them. But anyway, it was a good week for me and I hope next week is going to be even better.”
Safina, world ranked No. 9, will swap places with countrywoman Anna Chakvetadze to a career-high No. 8 in the new list on Monday.
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