Serena, Safina gain Sydney quarterfinals

SYDNEY – Top-ranked Serena Williams opened her season with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Tuesday, reaching the quarterfinals at a Sydney International where other leading players have struggled.

No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 7-5, 6-2 to Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova later Tuesday, joining fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, No. 7 Jelena Jankovic and No. 8 Vera Zvonareva as losers in the first two rounds.

Second-seeded Dinara Safina was in trouble in her first set since she quit with a back injury at the season-ending championships in October, losing the opening five games before recovering to win nine straight in a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

Elena Vesnina, who advanced from the first round when Zvonareva retired hurt on Monday, lost, 6-3, 6-4, on Tuesday to Vera Dushevina, who now plays Williams in the quarterfinals.

Williams said she wasn’t bothered about how many seeded players made early exits, or how it opened up the draw for her.

“I don’t care who I play. Whenever I play someone they play their best.” she said. “I play Vera Dushevina next and she’s a good player and she’s been ranked high before.

“So whoever I play, believe me, they’re going to play like No. 1 on that particular day against me for whatever reason, so it doesn’t matter for me.”

Williams is using the Sydney tournament as her main warmup for first major of the season, which starts next Monday in Melbourne.

She won the WTA Championship on Nov. 1 and had a bye in the first round here. She spent only 1 hour, 12 minutes on court against Spanish Hopman Cup winner Martinez Sanchez as temperatures hit 33 Celsius (91 F).

Williams said she wanted to play matches to acclimatize quickly, with the southern city of Melbourne experiencing a heatwave a week ahead of the Australian Open.

Safina spent 1:47 on court and dropped serve five times in a struggle against No. 10-ranked Radwanska. Despite the slow start, she said the back inflammation which restricted her training until the middle of last month didn’t cause her any concerns in Sydney.

“I was 5-love down, but the only problem was I was missing everything – everything was flying all over the place,” Safina said. “So once I win a game, I’m like, ‘OK, let’s start like this.

“Once it clicked, it started to be better.”

Safina, a finalist here last year and at the Australian Open, saved a set point in the first before breaking Radwanska in the match-turning 10th game and was satisfied with her comeback.

“I mean, it’s the first match of the year. If you start to cry in the first game of first match, then what can happen when it’s going to be the end of the season,” she said. “It was 20 minutes and 5-love. I thought, ‘OK, at least try to stay a little bit longer on the court.” (AP)