MONTRÉAL, Canada - Dinara Safina continued her love affair with Montréal on Wednesday afternoon, ousting No.18 seed Nadia Petrova to reach the third round - and extend her win streak in the city to seven matches.
Watch live tennis this week on TennisTV.com - $30 off annual pass!
(blackout applies to European territories due to rights restrictions)
Safina, won won five matches in a row to win here in 2008 and beat Andrea Petkovic in the first round on Monday to make it six in a row, made it seven with a 75 46 64 marathon victory over Petrova, winning five straight games from 1-4 in the third set to prevail, even serving the match out at love.
"The crowd was unbelievable today. They were behind me so much, I could not let it go," Safina said. "At 1-4 I had to keep on fighting. I had so many chances before that and didn't take them, but then I told myself to stay tough."
This is the first time since the Australian Open that Safina has won back-to-back matches; it is the first time since April she has won a three-setter.
"It's the first time in a long time for me to win a three set match. Before, I could play a three set match against a top player and physically be fine. This was a nice test for me. I played two hours and 14 minutes in a high intensity match."
Next up is No.6 seed Francesca Schiavone, who won a two-hour, 43-minute match with qualifier Ekaterina Makarova under the hot sun, 64 67(5) 62.
Have a look back at Francesca's triumph in Paris right here!
"She's the French Open champion and is playing well. There are no easy openings," Safina said. "My ranking is very low, so each match will be a tough match. I'll go out and do my best. I'll try to play better than I did today."
"We're both fighters and have good characters," Schiavone said. "Until I won the French, my best results were on hardcourts. I have to find my timing with the ball and with my opponent, and I'm curious to see how it goes. She plays faster on the backhand and more spin on the forehand, so it will be interesting."
Safina leads her head-to-head with Schiavone, 3-2, although the pair hasn't played in over three years, since Safina won in three at the 2007 French Open.
Schiavone was asked about visiting Little Italy in the city: "Today I met many Italian fans and they followed me saying, 'We love you, we love you!' There are so many Italian restaurants. They gave me a list of them to go to. I can't go everywhere but I'm finding the good ones. We'll see if I can go to the others!"
