Safina survives debut match challenge; Venus easily advances to next round on Day 2 in Cincy

Top seed and rank Dinara Safina nearly succumbed to her second straight early loss in Cincinnati, but the Russian managed to get away with it and advanced to the third round after beating Roberta Vinci in three sets in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

Safina rallied to beat Vinci with a tough score, losing the first set easily and winning the next two. The final score was 27 64 75.

"It was just a day when things were going all over the place except for the tennis court," Safina said. "I accepted it. I thought if I lost, I'd have to forget about this match as soon as possible because it made no sense. It wasn't me. But slowly I think she got tight. I don't know what happened exactly, but even on the worst day you have to find something positive. I'm happy I was able to win."

Other winners of the day included No. 3 seed Venus Williams, who breezed past Olga Govortsova 62 62, and No. 6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who had a tough time executing her win against Lucie Safarova, 63 67(2) 64.

Singles - Second Round

(1) Dinara Safina (RUS) d. Roberta Vinci (ITA) 26 75 64

(3) Venus Williams (USA) d. (Q) Olga Govortsova (BLR) 62 62

(6) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. Lucie Safarova (CZE) 63 67(2) 76(4)

Singles - First Round

Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. (10) Nadia Petrova (RUS) 62 63

(13) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. Ai Sugiyama (JPN) 62 61

(14) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) d. (Q) Ayumi Morita (JPN) 62 63

Peng Shuai (CHN) d. (15) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 62 61

Sorana Cirstea (ROU) d. (WC) Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) 75 75

Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) d. Sara Errani (ITA) 36 63 61

Sybille Bammer (AUT) d. Zheng Jie (CHN) 62 46 62

Agnes Szavay (HUN) d. (Q) Urszula Radwanska (POL) 75 75

Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) d. Aravane Rezai (FRA) 63 63

María José Martínez Sánchez (ESP) d. Vera Dushevina (RUS) 64 36 63

(Q) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) d. Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 63 64

(WC) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. (Q) Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 64 61