Safina and Ivanovic crash out

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:23

Second seed Safina was beaten 6-1 6-4 by Australia’s Samantha Stosur while Ivanovic, seeded seventh, fell 6-4 4-6 6-1 to Agnes Szavay.

Safina has been one of the form players over the last 12 months but she has hit something of a rut following her hammering by Serena Williams in the Australian Open final and was well beaten by the unseeded Stosur.

Ivanovic beat Safina in the final of the French Open last summer but since then it has been a story of injury and poor form.

She seemed to be back on the right track last time out when she reached the final in Indian Wells but the loss to 25th seed Szavay is another blow.

There was better news for top-ranked Serena Williams, who while seeking a record sixth Key Biscayne title reached the round of 16 by beating Peng Shuai 7-5 6-2.

Her sister and number five Venus Williams defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5 6-3. Next up for Serena will be Zheng Jie of China who beat Alize Cornet 6-4 6-0, while Venus will face Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who defeated Kaia Kanepi 6-4 6-3.

Meanwhile, fourth seed Elena Dementieva again got the better of promising Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-2, eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova recovered from 4-1 down in the second set to defeat Nicole Vaidisova 6-1 6-4 and Alisa Kleybanova battled past Anastasiya Yakimova 6-3 3-6 6-4.

Victoria Azarenka, seeded 11th, was a 6-1 6-4 winner over former top-10 player Anna Chakvetadze, China’s Li Na outlasted sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva 6-4 3-6 6-2 and Ekaterina Makarova defeated fellow countrywoman and ninth-seed Nadia Petrova 7-5 6-1.

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