Safina Moves Into Quarterfinals

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperature was already into the 80s when the match between No. 6 seed Dinara Safina of Russia and qualifier Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany got underway. Safina started out a little slow, but ultimately steadied herself to win 7-5, 6-0.

Though Groenefeld’s shots did not have the precision or speed that Safina’s offered, she matched her opponent game for game until serving to go even at three all, when she committed a double fault and three unforced errors sending Safina up 4-2.

However, in the next game Groenefeld broke back and then the two started see-sawing back and forth, breaking, but not holding until reaching five all. Safina then turned it up a notch as she held serve and then broke to take the first set.

The match overall was fairly mundane, featuring a standard serve and volley game from both players. In fact Safina approached the net only three times.

In the second set, Safina found herself down 30-40 in the first game, at which point she seemed to give herself a talking to in Russian. Whatever she said, it worked. The 22-year-old did not give up another game and took the second set 6-0.

After that the match, Safina expressed mild surprise at her win, explaining that she had not expected it because she had not had any sort of full warm-up prior to taking the court.

“But,” she said. “I was going to do whatever I can. Then [Groenefeld] started to miss."

Now, this year’s French Open runner-up, moves on to the quarterfinals where she will take on either No. 16 seed Flavia Pennetta or No. 32 seed Amelie Mauresmo