Safina falls to Razzano
Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:19
The Russian, who lost to Serena Williams in the final of the Australian Open last month, struggled with her return of serve and never recovered from losing a tight opening set in her second-round match.
Razzano strolled through the second without offering up a break point to win 6-4 6-2.
Safina was the only seed to fall, although favourite Serena Williams suffered a scare against Sara Errani.
The Italian claimed the first set but crumbled thereafter, surrendering 4-6 6-2 6-0 to the top seed.
The third, fourth, fifth and sixth seeds did not lose a set between them as Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva, Vera Zvonareva and Venus Williams all progressed.
The American was particularly impressive, demolishing Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0 6-1.
Elsewhere there were wins for Alize Cornet, Dominika Cibulkova and Zheng Jie, although 11th seed Marion Bartoli was pushed all the way before progressing past Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (7/5) 3-6 6-3.
Sania Mirza, a finalist in Pattaya last week, lost 7-5 6-2 to 16th seed Kaia Kanepi, while Anabel Medina Garrigues beat Alona Bondarenko 6-2 7-5.
Camille Pin and Daniela Hantuchova also progressed.
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