Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Dementieva wins opening match at Key Biscayne

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) -Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva took advantage of her opponent's shaky serves Friday to reach the third round at the Sony Ericsson Open.

The No. 4-seeded Dementieva beat Anastasia Pivovarova 6-0, 3-6, 6-3. Dementieva broke serve eight times and was helped by Pivovarova's 11 double faults.

The Safin family swept its second-round matches. No. 2 Dinara Safina beat Mathilde Johansson 6-1, 6-3, and her brother, No. 22 Marat Safin, defeated Oscar Hernandez 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.


No. 3 Novak Djokovic, who won the tournament in 2007, beat Frank Dancevic 6-3, 6-2. No. 13 James Blake broke serve in the final game of each set to defeat Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-4.

On the women's side, former U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuzentsova rallied to beat Tamira Paszek 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Seeded players had first-round byes. No. 2 Roger Federer and No. 5 Andy Roddick were among those with matches scheduled later Friday.