Safina survives scare to reach U.S. Open quarters

31 August, 2008, 20:57

Russia’s great hope at the U.S. Open tennis, Dinara Safina, is within 3 wins of taking her first Grand Slam singles title after coming from behind to beat Swiss teenager Timea Bacsinszky. Safina lost the first set 3-6 be

The Russian, who’s made the final in 6 of her last 7 tournaments, served poorly at the start, recording 5 of her 7 double faults in the first set.

“She was more nervous than me,” said Bacsinszky, “She had all the pressure. Everybody said before she was supposed to win. Me, I had nothing to lose. I was relaxed.”

But that soon changed in the second set, although 22-year-old Safina did come within 2 points of losing the match in the tie-break.

Meanwhikle, the Williams sisters are on track for a showdown after both moving into he fourth round.

Venus overwhelmed Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko 6-2 6-1, while younger sister Serena blew away Japan’s Ai Sugiyama with the same scoreline.

“I’m definitely at my best now,” seventh seeded Venus boasted after her 56-minute encounter in New York.

In the men’s draw, top seed Raphael Nadal cruised into the next round by beating Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4 6-3 6-0

James Blake lost to his friend and countryman Mardy Fish 6-3 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) which ended at five minutes to midnight.