Sixth seed Dinara Safina weathered a spirited challenge from Swiss teenager Timea Bacsinszky to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the third round of the US Open on Saturday.
Since May, the Russian has been the in-form player on the tour and has reached six finals in seven tournaments.
But Bacsinszky, playing in the third round of a grand slam for the first time, came out fighting and almost pulled off a stunning upset when she came within two points of victory in the second set.
”It was a wake-up call,” said Safina, who will next meet Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany.
”It’s good that I pulled it out … I was physically down and felt so heavy. She was playing good but I gave her all the chances to play good. But these are the kind of matches you sometimes need to get through.”
Bacsinszky broke Safina’s serve to take the first game and held her nerve to take the opening set.
Safina appeared to be getting back into the match with the first break in the second set but then made several errors to let Bacsinszky level at 3-3.
Despite continuing to produce a flurry of unforced errors, Safina broke back and then went on the offensive to take the set 7-5.
Safina clinched the third easily after Bacsinszky wilted under pressure and was unable to handle the Russian’s heavy groundstrokes.
Safina, whose emotions usually spill over during tight matches, for once put in a rather muted performance despite being on the backfoot for the opening two sets.
Her silence, she said was a strategy.
”My coach said ‘Go out there and don’t say a word because if you start talking to yourself, you will lose hope,”’ explained Safina.
”I was going crazy, but I was trying not to speak at least, because this would kill me.” – Reuters