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.

0 comments: