Dinara Safina ended her six match losing streak in the first round of the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego but lost in the following round already, in straight sets to fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 6-3. This is Radwanska’s first victory over former world No.1 Safina and their head-to-head record is 2-1 now.

Radwanska’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be Shahar Peer who advanced with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova. (photo by John Bolan)

According to James LaRosa, Twitter is no longer Dinara Safina’s place to visit because of offensive people.

Serena Williams is the most active player on Twitter, she’s practically addicted to Twitter, and I like what one commentator said on Forty Deuce: "Dinara does not have thick skin, clearly. Serena seems to survive just fine." Marat, step in!

Safina last tweeted something on July 25.

Ana Ivanovic has confirmed her adidas outfit for the US Open. It’s the same dress she's currently wearing, again with optional leggings, only that the new color scheme is pink. The official name of the dress is adidas Women's Fall Ana adilibria Dress.

Ana’s fist pump doesn’t look that energetic in the picture, like she knew she would lose in the first round of the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego. Shahar Peer defeated her 7-6(3) 6-3. Peer had only two break points in the match, and converted just one, but it was enough to beat Ivanovic. (source: Down the Line)

Former world No.1 Dinara Safina defeated Alona Bondarenko 6-1 7-6(2) in the first round of the Mercury Insurance Open on Monday and snapped a six-match losing streak. Safina, whose season was hampered by a back injury, has slumped to No.35 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings and hadn’t won a match since Stuttgart in April.

In the match against Bondarenko Safina decided to take an aggressive approach and it paid off. Here’s what the 24-year-old Russian said:

I needed the win. Last week I lost a tiebreaker and in practice I lost one because I was playing defensive. Tonight I said I'm not going to play defensive and be aggressive and whatever happens, happens.

Very good news is that Safina claims her back is alright now:

I think my back is fine now. Every morning when I wake up and it feels good I say thanks.

Safina’s next opponent will be either fourth-seed Agnieszka Radwanska or Chanelle Scheepers, who reached the fourth round of the 2010 French Open. (source: Reuters, photo by our reader John Bolan)

World No.12 Victoria Azarenka won the Premier-level Bank of the West Classic in Stanford on Sunday for her first title of the season, but soon after her agent said she would skip the August 2–8 Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego. The reason behind the Belorussian’s withdrawal is a right shoulder injury.

The Mercury Insurance Open was formerly known as the Acura Classic. The last champion was Maria Sharapova in 2007, and the tournament wasn’t held in 2008 and 2009.

The top four seeds at the 2010 Mercury Insurance Open are Jelena Jankovic, Samantha Stosur, Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska. (source: Reuters, photo: Stephane Martinache)

Eighth seed Victoria Azarenka cruised past fifth seed Maria Sharapova in the final of the $700,000 Bank of the West Classic in Stanford to win her fourth career title and her first one this year.

Azarenka, who turned 21 on Saturday, survived a 6-3 3-1 deficit in the quarterfinal against defending champion Marion Bartoli, but the last two steps to the title were easier – the 6-2 6-3 victory over top seed Samantha Stosur in the semis and the 6-4 6-1 win over Maria Sharapova in the final in which Azarenka won the last 15 points.

The Belorussian’s previous three titles include Brisbane, Memphis and Miami, and they all came in 2009. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Elena Vesnina 5-7 7-5 6-4 in the all-Russian final of the Istanbul Cup even though her opponent initially had a 7-5 4-0 lead and a 3-1 lead in the third set. The third-seeded Pavlyuchenkova lost her serve seven times, but broke her opponent eight times to win the match.

Despite losing the final on her 24th birthday, Vesnina can be satisfied with the fact that her seven-match losing streak dating back to April is over.

World No.60 Vesnina was playing her third WTA final without success, while world No.29 Pavlyuchenkova added the Istanbul Cup title to her first one won at the Monterrey Open earlier this year. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)