Second seed Dinara Safina slumped out of the Dubai Tennis Championships in the second round on Tuesday after losing 6-4, 6-2 to Virginie Razzano of France. Sania Mirza arrived at 5 A.M. on Monday and still had enough energy to get past Ekaterina Makarova of Russia (7-5, 6-2), but then looked a little jaded as she lost her second round match 7-5, 6-2 to Kaia Kanepi, the 16th seeded Estonian. Top-seeded Serena Williams recovered from a slow start and beat Sara Errani of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the second round. In the next round, Serena will face Zheng Jie of China, who beat Samantha Stosur of Australia 3-6, 7-5, 7-5. Sixth seed Venus Williams was in magnificent form as she brushed aside Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0, 6-1, while third seed Jelena Jankovic defeated Romania's Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-2. Russian Safina had reached the final of both tournaments she has played this year, first in Sydney and then at the Australian Open. But she looked completely out of touch against Razzano, who was aggressive but often had to do little more than wait for Safina to lose the point. The Russian had no consistency, hitting 12 double-faults, striking some superb winners but making careless and elementary errors. Serbia's Jankovic found her opponent Niculescu difficult to adapt to, as she kept her guessing what shot she would produce. “She's an unusual player,” said Jankovic. “She plays two-handed on both sides and she comes up with those slices and some kind of dropshots. So I always had to be alert and be ready for any kind of shot. You cannot compare, but she's something like Fabrice Santoro, that style of play.” Fifth seed Vera Zvonareva dominated fellow Russian Vera Dushevina 6-0, 6-3, 10th seeded Alize Cornet of France crushed German qualifier Julia Schruff 6-1 6-2, and 11th seeded Marion Bartoli of France defeated Francesca Schiavone 7-6, 3-6, 6-3. Andreev ousted In Memphis, sixth-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia was knocked in the opening round of the RMK Championships by countryman Igor Kunitsyn 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Monday. Kunitsyn won his first match of the year after consecutive first-round losses at Brisbane, Auckland, the Australian Open and San Jose. Two qualifiers advanced in other men's matches. Australian Chris Guccione won 49 of his 51 first-serve points and fired 19 aces to defeat American veteran Vince Spadea, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5), and Israel's Dudi Sela beat Bobby Reynolds of the United States 7-6 (4), 6-2. In women's play, Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands, stepsister of former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, knocked off No. 7 seed Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-1, 6-4, and 16-year-old Michelle Larcherde Brito of Portugal, a wild card entry, defeated 2006 Memphis champion, Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson, 6-2, 6-0. Women's seeds advancing Monday were Czech No. 3 Lucie Safarova, who beat Britain's Melanie South, 6-2, 6-2; No. 4 Anne Keothavong of Britain, who defeated Italy's Maria Elena Camerin 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, and No. 8 Pauline Parmentier, who beat fellow Frenchwoman Julie Coin, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-1. Santoro, Safin lose Darling of the home crowd Fabrice Santoro and charismatic Russian Marat Safin bowed out of the ATP tournament in Marseille on Tuesday in their final season as professionals. Former US and Australian Open champion Safin lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Frenchman Arnaud Clement while 36-year-old Santoro, playing in the tournament for the 11th time, was beaten by compatriot Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Both 59th world-ranked Santoro and 27th-ranked Safin had previously announced they would be retiring at the end of 2009.
