Daniela Hantuchova avenged her last week’s 7-6(4) 7-6(2) defeat to Dinara Safina by beating the Russian 6-3 6-4 in the first round of the US Open. Safina has now lost in the first round of a Grand Slam for the second straight time, at Roland Garros and now at the US Open, while she skipped Wimbledon with a lower back injury.

The former world No.1 Safina, currently ranked 50th, fought hard in the match against seed No.24 Hantuchova, and had a chance to level at 5-5 in the second set, but Hantuchova stayed in there and Safina’s long return handed Hantuchova the victory in the end.

Fifth seed Samantha Stosur lost the first set to Elena Vesnina, and dropped serve right in the beginning of the second set, before breaking right back and eventually winning the set in a tiebreak to finally storm through the decider. Final score: 3-6 7-6(2) 6-1.

Defending champion Kim Clijsters cruised through the first set against world No.104 Greta Arn in just 18 minutes, without losing a single game. In the second set, however, the second-seeded Belgian found herself in a 4-0 deficit before winning 12 straight points (three games) and breaking Arn's serve in the 10th game and again in the last game to close out the match with the score 6-0 7-5.

The victory marks Clijsters’ 15th successive win at the US Open. The streak started at the 2005 US Open, which Clijsters won. Then she didn’t compete at the tournament until 2009, the year when she had an amazing run to another US Open title.

French Open champion Francesca Schiavone eased into the second round of the 2010 US Open with a 6-1 6-0 victory over Ayumi Morita. American darling, Melanie Oudin, is also through. She defeated Olga Savchuk 6-3 6-0. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Dinara Safina has extended her winning streak in Montreal to seven matches by upsetting seed No.18 Nadia Petrova 7-5 4-6 6-4 in the second round. The Russian’s winning streak in the city started in 2008, when she won the title, and she has now added the victory over Petrova to her first round defeat of Andrea Petkovic.

The Safina vs. Petrova match was a marathon which proved to Safina that she can still play high intensity matches. In the decider the former world No.1 won five straight games from 1-4 and thus recorded her first back-to-back victory since the Australian Open in January. In addition, this is Safina’s first three-set victory since Stuttgart in April.

Kim Clijsters followed up her memorable comeback win over Maria Sharapova in the final of Cincinnati this past weekend with another come-from-behind victory, over Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round of the Rogers Cup. The fifth-seeded Clijsters, who had a bye in the first round, lost the opening set, fell 4-1 down in the second set and Mattek-Sands even had points for 6-4 5-1. But Clijsters’ then won five straight games to level the match and in the deciding set she was already on a roll. Clijsters defeated Mattek-Sands in a highly entertaining match in which the American showed the diverse skill she has to offer. Final score: 4-6 6-4 6-3.

Here’s how Clijsters commented on her opponent after the match:

"Bethanie came up with some amazing shots. She's a player who can rise to the occasion. If she plays the level she played tonight in those first two sets, I don't see why she shouldn't be in the Top 10 or Top 15." (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photos courtesy of Fiji Water)

Dinara Safina had a comfortable 6-3 6-3 victory over world No.36 Andrea Petkovic in the first round of the Rogers Cup played in Montreal this year. The Russian won the Rogers Cup the last time the tournament was played in Montreal, in 2008. In that final she defeated Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-1.

At this point last year Safina was ranked No.1, but right now she’s as low as No.70. She has suffered a drop of 35 spots since last week, failing to defend her finals showing in Cincinnati.

Safina’s opponent in the second round will be the winner of the match between No.18 seed Nadia Petrova and Lucie Safarova. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Elena Dementieva lost in the second round of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open to fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Kim Clijsters avenged her 2009 Cincinnati loss to Dinara Safina and progressed to the third round. Both Dementieva and Clijsters were playing their opening matches.

The third-seeded Dementeiva claimed to have been affected by the humid weather in the days prior to Wednesday’s rain and simply couldn’t get into the game. Pavlyuchenkova, titlist at the Istanbul Cup last week, won 6-1 6-3 and will next play seed No.13 Shahar Peer.

In a battle of two former world No.1s, fourth seed Kim Clijsters beat Dinara Safina 7-5 6-2. Clijsters started her last year’s return to professional tennis at this very tournament and, interestingly, Safina was the one who ended her Cincinnati campaign in the quarterfinals, with quite a similar score: 6-2 7-5.

Maria Sharapova cruised past Andrea Petkovic 6-3 6-1 in the second round, while Vera Zvonareva survived the encounter with Maria Kirilenko, eventually winning 7-5 2-6 7-6(2). Second seed Caroline Wozniacki had no trouble defeating Sybille Bammer 6-0 6-2. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovanovski made a big upset in the first round of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open by defeating seed No.14 Aravane Rezai, the winner of two claycourt tournaments this season (Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open and Collector Swedish Open Women). The young Serbian rising star, currently ranked at No.98, came back from a set down to defeat the Top 20 player Rezai 4-6 6-3 6-4 on the hard courts of Cincinnati. Jovanovski’s opponent in the second round will be Akgul Amanmuradova.

Former world number one Dinara Safina, unseeded in Cincinnati, made it to the second round with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Italian Roberta Vinci. Safina will next play reigning US Open champion Kim Clijsters, who is seeded fourth at the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open and has a bye in the first round. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)