MADRID, Spain - Dinara Safina continued to prove herself as the best player in the world Sunday, winning her second straight Premier-level Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title at the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open with a 62 64 victory over the Top 10's newest member, Caroline Wozniacki.
Neither Safina nor Wozniacki had difficult paths to the final. The No.9-seeded Wozniacki didn't even drop a set, although she did come close a few times; top-seeded Safina was pushed to three sets once and nearly lost that one, rallying from 0-2 in the third set to beat Lucie Safarova in the third round, 60 46 63. But both players were fresh as a daisy for Sunday's title bout.
The two finalists had never played before but Safina's power game was too much for the craftier Wozniacki at the critical moments. The Russian broke serve twice en route to taking the first set, 6-2, then gained the third and final break of the match in the first game of the second set en route to taking it, 6-4. The final score seemed routine but the two were on court for an hour and 49 minutes.
"I was feeling confident from the beginning and tried to be as aggressive as I could," Safina said. "I got a little bit tired at the end of the match but I was still dominant in the crucial moments. Caroline is a great player - she's very young and has time to improve. I think she can be very dangerous."
Safina had a strong start to the season, going 14-5 between Australia and the European clay court season, but since climbing to No.1 on April 20 she has gone 14-1, finishing runner-up in her first event as No.1 in Stuttgart and now winning back-to-back titles in Rome and Madrid. The Russian heads into Roland Garros as the favorite, and though she has never won a major she has come close - twice.
"I have come to find my place. I feel comfortable being No.1," said Safina, a runner-up at the 2008 French Open to Ana Ivanovic and the 2009 Australian Open to Serena Williams. "It was my dream from the beginning to be No.1 and I always believed I could get it. Once I got it, I was ready for it. That's why I think I'm enjoying it so much. Since I became No.1 I've played better and better."
Wozniacki had never been to a quarterfinal on clay before 2009 but has really broken that pattern this year, winning Ponte Vedra Beach, making the final of Charleston and now reaching another title match, her biggest, at Madrid.
Patty Schnyder and Amélie Mauresmo, who were the first and second players left out of the Top 16 seedings, also made lots of noise in Madrid, coming into their own and winning through to the semifinals. Schnyder, ranked No.20, pulled off upsets over Top 10 players Nadia Petrova and Jelena Jankovic, falling to Safina; Mauresmo, No.21, upset one Top 10 player, Elena Dementieva, and would eventually fall to Wozniacki. Both veterans lit up the crowds all week.
Cara Black and Liezel Huber won their third title of the year, having won at Paris [Indoors] and Dubai in February. Seeded No.1, they beat a whole host of in-form teams, ultimately taking out No.3 seeds Kveta Peschke and Lisa Raymond in a match tie-break, 46 63 106. Black and Huber now have 25 titles together.
See photos in the Photo Gallery presented by Dubai Duty Free.
