Rezai falls, Kuznetsova advances in Marbella tennis

France's Aravane Rezai fell at the first hurdle at the WTA Andalucia Tennis Experience tournament on Tuesday, suffering a straight sets defeat in the first round to Spanish wildcard Estrella Cabeza.

"I was expecting to hit more winners and it wasn't happening because this is clay. But I knew that if I kept fighting things might go my way, and I'm happy that I was able to do it."

Meanwhile, Rezai's serve was broken five times as the Frenchwoman could only convert one of her nine break point chances.

"Although she was one of the seeds and that she hits the ball well, I knew that she hadn't been in great form," said 24-year-old Cabeza after the biggest win of her career. "I tried to take advantage of that."

Russia's Dinara Safina avoided a similar fate as she advanced despite dropping her opening set before seeing off Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

"It's good to finally win one," said Safina, who had been 0-3 in three set matches this year. "Everything she hit was landing in, on the line. But I hung in there and the moment she thought that she could win she got tight and started to miss shots. So I think at the crucial moment my experience played a big part and helped me to win."

Fifth seed Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria eased into the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Spaniard Maria Teresa Torro with home hopes Lourdes Dominguez and Lara Arruabarrena also advancing to the next round.

Hungary's Agnes Szavay continued her return from injury with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Swede Johanna Larsson, and next meets Kuznetsova, with top seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus playing her first round tie Wednesday against Spain's Arantxa Parra Santonja.

Ana Ivanovic and Dinara Safina

Ana Ivanovic and Dinara Safina: Resurgence at Indian Wells 2011

Ana Ivanovic and Dinara Safina have posed, for women's tennis, as the couplet of failure for the last three years. Indian Wells, however, has been blessed thus far in 2011, in that it has witnessed some sort of resurgence.

Some sort of resurgence. Safina and Ivanovic, at this point in writing, have of course both been bounced out of the tournament by Maria Sharapova and Marion Bartoli respectively, players with no humble credentials themselves.

The most surprising thing about the stories of Ivanovic and Safina has certainly been the depths to which they have had to stoop in this process of career-realisation. Mind you, it was pretty hard to imagine anything going wrong with their upwards-trendy careers back in 2008—Ivanovic won the French after a year or so of movement towards the top, while Safina, the defeated finalist, hoped for great things herself.

Indeed, the Russian proved so for the next few months, and played the role currently held by Wozniacki, being a world number one without a slam title. Safina's chances were there, nonetheless, at the Australian Open and French Open finals in 2009. On both occasions she proved woefully out of her depth. Since then, Safina has failed to reach anything near the second week of a grand slam, yet alone maintain her name in the top 10.

Ivanovic, however, began to unravel quite quickly after her French Open title, and since winning her maiden major has been unable to reach the last eight of a grand slam. Indeed her swift success at the highest levels seems to have been costly—scarcely has she imposed her dominating game on any match since. Why Safina and Ivanovic, not to mention some of the other WTA women, fell so quickly is still something of a mystery.

Success, for some people, unleashes the pressure of expectation, and releases the floodgates, as it were. For the Russian and Serb, however, the pressures of expectation have proven too much.

It was nice, then, to see some sort of a revival at the Indian Wells tennis garden this week. Their performances were not classic comebacks—Ivanovic has lost, of course, which evidently ends any chance of seeing her lift the trophy. Neither is this the first moment in a long while that both have demonstrated something of their former selves. Their runs, nonetheless, are significant in their career development.

It is the first time Safina has won any string of matches in a long while, ending a series of consecutive losses. While this may seem elementary, every return is made with small steps. Safina's problems have been almost entirely psychological, and every bit of that winning feeling adds to the reserves of confidence she needs to build up.

For Ivanovic, on the other hand, we are seeing perhaps a glimmer of her former dominant self. Her victory over Jankovic, especially, is one of the first few times in the last few years she has earned a win over a top player. Jankovic used to be one of her rivals for the number one spot in 2008, and defeating her surely must have injected some confidence into her game.

At any rate, Safina and Ivanovic still have a way to go, but we have seen in their runs at Indian Wells this year something fundamental to tennis—confidence comes in winning.

Marion Bartoli eases through

Second seed Marion Bartoli breezed through the first round of the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur with a straight-sets victory over Maria Elena Camerin.

The Frenchwoman saw off her Italian opponent - who served seven double faults - 6-0 6-1 in one hour and 12 minutes in the Malaysian capital. Bartoli now faces Ekatarina Ivanova after the Russian outduelled her compatriot Nina Bratchikiova 6-3 4-6 6-4.

Third seed and defending champion Alisa Kleybanova also cruised through 6-1 6-1 against Lu Jing Jing from China but number seven seed Kimiko Date-Krumm was upset by qualifier Anne Kremer, the Luxembourg player prevailing 4-6 6-2 7-6 (7/5).

Jarmila Groth beat Sun Shengnan 7-6 (7/2) 6-3, Bojana Jovanovski saw off Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-0 6-1, while there were also wins for Dinara Safina, Michaella Krajicek, Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara.

Dinara Safina stays as Ana Ivanovic

Safina stays as Ivanovic bundled out in Korea tennis.

Former world number one Ana Ivanovic was bundled out of the WTA Korea Open on Wednesday, but there was better news for Dinara Safina who continued her comeback from injury with a battling win.

The 22-year-old Serbian, who won the 2008 French Open before her slide down the rankings, blew a one set lead against Russia's Vera Dushevina to crash out in the first round 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 at the rain-hit tournament.

It was a disappointing end for Ivanovic, who made the fourth round of the US Open this month as she tries to recapture her best form under the guidance of former Steffi Graf coach Heinz Guenthardt.

Safina, also a former world number one, fared better, overcoming Romania's Simona Halep 6-4, 6-4.

The Russian was handed a wildcard as she fights back from a lower back injury and will now play her compatriot, the third seeded Maria Kirilenko, who beat Poland's Urszula Radwanska in straight sets.

In other matches, 39-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm, the defending champion, beat fellow Japanese Junri Namigata while second seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia sent Australia's Anastasia Rodionova packing.

Big-hitting Russian Nadia Petrova is the top seed in Seoul and she swept past Jarmila Groth 6-3, 6-2, bringing the Australian back down to Earth after her maiden WTA title at the Guangzhou Open in China on Sunday.

Safina, Ivanovic return to winning days in Cincinnati

Former World no 1 Dinara Safina registered a 7-5, 6-4 victory against Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the opening round of Cincinnati Open on Monday.

Safina bounced back from 3-5 down to win the opening set and escaped another break at 3-4 in the second set to won the match in straight sets.

"Some points I didn't play well, some I played really well. At this stage of the tournament, the most important thing is to get the win," said Safina."It was a tough match but I was happy I stayed positive and gave 100%."

The Russian next faces fourth seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters.

Another former No 1 Ana Ivanovic of Sebia had a narrow escape against ninth seed Belarussian Victoria Azarenka.

Ivanovic rallied from 6-2, 5-3 to beat Azarenka 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-2 and advanced to the second round.

"The crowd helped me so much. It was so great to see a lot of young kids," Ivanovic said. "It's my biggest win since Rome. Rome was a great week for me, but this victory means a lot. It's good to see that hanging in there gives the good results."

In other matches of the day, Israeli Shahar Peer advanced after Olga Govortsova of Belarus retired when trailing 6-3, 4-1, while Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli downed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-4, 6-0.

Dinara Safina Crashes Out Of Madrid

Dinara Safina's troubles continue as she crashed out of the Madrid Open in the first round, an event that she won twelve months ago.

Safina has been struggling with a back injury since the Australian Open, an injury that forced her to withdraw from the event, that could have threatened her career.

She made her return in Stuttgart a fortnight ago but has struggled to find her form with a string of disappointing results.

The Russian, who was ranked third coming into the event, joins a list of big named casualties who have already fallen in Madrid including Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Despite her form Safina did open up a 4-1 lead in the opening set but poor serving and lack of match practice saw qualifier Klara Zakopalova peg her back to take it to a tie break.

And it was Zakopalova who dominated that break as Safina took just one point.