Safina wins third career title to Slovakian Cibulkova

Playing only her fifth final in her career, Dinara Safina completely demolished her opponent in Sunday's final. Safina was just too much to handle for Dominika Cibulkova, as the Russian easily finished Cibulkova off with a 62 61 victory.

Safina had her first two matches made easy, but the next two matches were much tougher. She faced countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals, and suffered being 62 20 down, but came back to win, 26 63 62. In the semis, the Dinara faced Victoria Azarenka, and she came back from a second set loss to win 60 26 63.

"I think my experience helped me a bit in the final; I'm sure Dominika's time will come soon though," an elated Safina said. "It's the first time in my life I've won back-to-back tournaments; I used to win a tournament then lose first round the next week. But now I'm always just taking it one match at a time. It's a new experience for me and really just amazing. I'm so happy to win today."

"I was nervous in my first big final," Cibulkova said. "I'm kind of upset with how I played in the final. I wanted to have a good match against Dinara. But I think she played really well. I hope in my next final I will play better."

Safina's semifinal victim in Montréal, Azarenka, commented on the Russian's form of late: "As you can see, since the clay court season, she's playing amazingly. I think she's playing like the No.1 player in the world."

"No.1 is still so far away; this is all coming so fast," said Safina, who has now won 27 of her last 30 matches, including the last 10 straight. "I have to take a step back and realize what I've done the last few weeks. I want to take everything one step at a time. Only God knows what will happen in the weeks coming up."

"Dinara is playing really well," Cibulkova said. "She's a hard worker. I really think she can make it."

"This was a great experience," Cibulkova added. "I beat great players. Every round, I beat a better player than me. I played really well in this tournament. Hopefully in my next final I will be more relaxed and not be scared about it."