Russian third seed Dinara Safina outfought compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-4 to reach the Australian Open second round today.
Russian third seed Dinara Safina outfought compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-4 to reach the Australian Open second round today.
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At the same time as her elder brother Marat Safin was disposing of Spain's Ivan Navarro in straight sets, Safina was drawn into an error-strewn but closely-fought dogfight against Miami-based Kudryavtseva.
The match appeared to be going to form when Safina took an early break to lead 2-0 but Kudryavtseva hit back with two breaks of her own to make it 3-2, forcing her opponent to chase the game.
Safina, who lost in the first round here last year, maintained her once-suspect composure and stepped up a gear, launching a five-game winning streak to take the first set after 37 minutes.
Kudryavtseva, who knocked compatriot Maria Sharapova out of Wimbledon last year, had her chances in the second set as she attacked the net and attempted to move Safina around the court.
Leading the set 4-2, she blew a break point and Safina seized the reprieve, shutting her opponent out of the rest of the match.
The World No 3 spoke before the tournament of how her Croatian coach Zeljko Krajan had tempered the emotional fragility that once marred her game.
The new attitude was on display as she calmly served out the match, holding Kudryavtseva to love in the final game and leaving the histrionics to her increasingly frustrated opponent.
Safina will be looking to cut down on her mistakes after committing 26 unforced errors but the statistic did not prove too costly in the opening round as Kudryavtseva committed 56 of her own.
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