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SAFINA SCRAMBLES THROUGH
World number one Dinara Safina has reached the third round of the Cincinnati Open but only after narrowly avoiding a shock defeat against Roberta Vinci.
The Russian had to pick herself up off the floor against an opponent ranked 45 places below her in the world and eventually scrambled through with a 2-6 7-5 6-4 victory.
Safina started poorly and was spraying the ball everywhere in the match's early stages, Vinci taking advantage to lead by a set and 3-0.
After being pegged back to 3-3 in the second set, Vinci broke to lead 5-4 but, serving for the match, her nerve failed her.
The Italian could not serve out and Safina fought back to snatch the set before recovering from a break down in the decider.
There was better news for another Italian, 14th seed Flavia Pennetta, who followed up her tournament win in Los Angeles last weekend with a 6-2 6-3 first-round victory over Japan's Ayumi Morita.
Also in the first round, Daniela Hantuchova recovered from a slow start to beat Italy's Sara Errani 3-6 6-3 6-1 in a match that lasted more than two-and-a-half hours.
Later on Tuesday, third seed Venus Williams plays Olga Govortsova of Belarus for a place in the third round.
World number one Dinara Safina has reached the third round of the Cincinnati Open but only after narrowly avoiding a shock defeat against Roberta Vinci.
The Russian had to pick herself up off the floor against an opponent ranked 45 places below her in the world and eventually scrambled through with a 2-6 7-5 6-4 victory.
Safina started poorly and was spraying the ball everywhere in the match's early stages, Vinci taking advantage to lead by a set and 3-0.
After being pegged back to 3-3 in the second set, Vinci broke to lead 5-4 but, serving for the match, her nerve failed her.
The Italian could not serve out and Safina fought back to snatch the set before recovering from a break down in the decider.
There was better news for another Italian, 14th seed Flavia Pennetta, who followed up her tournament win in Los Angeles last weekend with a 6-2 6-3 first-round victory over Japan's Ayumi Morita.
Also in the first round, Daniela Hantuchova recovered from a slow start to beat Italy's Sara Errani 3-6 6-3 6-1 in a match that lasted more than two-and-a-half hours.
Later on Tuesday, third seed Venus Williams plays Olga Govortsova of Belarus for a place in the third round.