Serena Williams has another chance to overtake Dinara Safina at the top of the rankings. The one who goes further at the ongoing China Open will be No.1 after the tournament.

Both the No.1 Safina and the No.2 Williams progressed to the second round of the $4.5-million, Premier-level event. Safina defeated Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-4, while Williams followed with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Kaia Kanepi.

If Serena doesn’t do it this time, I think it would be fair for her and the rest of the world to completely stop discussing Dinara and her top ranking. Am I right? (photos: our reader Jacob)

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Top seed Dinara Safina, second seed Venus Williams and fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova all suffered upsets in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open. The fact that so many of them got upset at the same time kind of makes their individual losses milder, and early losers Ana Ivanovic and Flavia Pennetta look better.

World No.1 and defending champion Dinara Safina fell to 18-year-old Taiwanese qualifier Chang Kai-Chen, ranked 132nd, 7-6(5) 4-6 7-5. Safina had an opportunity to close out the match in the third set, but double-faulted, dropped her serve, and went on to lose.

Venus Williams lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6(6) 7-5, while Svetlana Kuznetsova, who just like Safina and Williams had a bye in the first round, lost 7-5 4-6 6-3 to Germany's Andrea Petkovic. (source: BBC, photo: Jean-Sebastien Marceau)

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America’s third-highest ranked WTA player Melanie Oudin reached the fourth round of a second straight Grand Slam, pulling off a comeback victory over Maria Sharapova, while world No.1 Dinara Safina finally crashed out of the US Open, having survived two close encounters in the first two rounds.

The 17-year-old Oudin, ranked 70th in the world, beat No.29 seed Maria Sharapova 3-6 6-4 7-5. The Russian hit 63 errors, and less than half as much winners, 30.

Let me remind you that in the previous round Oudin ousted fourth seed Elena Dementieva.

In the first round against world No.167 Olivia Rogowska, the top-seeded Safina lost the first-set tiebreak and rallied from a 3-0 down in the deciding set to advance. Against world No.67 Kristina Barrois in the second round Safina also lost the first set tiebreak and was trailing 2-0 in the third set. Finally, Petra Kvitova, ranked No.72, conquered the shaky world No.1 in another nail-biter, even though Safina had held three match points. Final score: 6-4 2-6 7-6(5).

As everyone knows, Safina is yet to win a Grand Slam title, but will remain on top of the rankings regardless of who wins the US Open title. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus Williams, is either playing a game on us or he really can’t remember the name of the top-ranked women’s tennis player.

"I think she's playing great tennis," Richard said about Dinara Safina. "I think she deserves to be No. 1. I'll tell ya something else, no one wants to play Sanowa, or whatever her name is. That girl hits that ball."

Is it possible that he can’t remember the simple word "Safina"? Hehe, whatever, he made me laugh, plus, Safina received a compliment – so it's all good. (Observer via Forty Deuce)

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Top seed Dinara Safina was almost taken out in the first round of the US Open, while her fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded sixth, advanced to the second round much more easily.

The world No.1 Safina double faulted to lose the first set tiebreak, having had four set points, to 167th-ranked Olivia Rogowska of Australia. Safina then hit back to win the second set, but again had to dig deep in the third set to eventually clinch a 6-7(5) 6-2 6-4 victory.

Sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, was broken early in her first-round match against Julia Goerges, but recovered to score a 6-3 6-2 victory.

Safina’s struggle in the first round has only confirmed how vulnerable even the top players are, showing the absolute openness of the women’s draw. (photo via Zygonyx)

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