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Dinara Safina forced to retire from Doha Championship.

by bahamaderek on Oct.28, 2009, under Caroline Wozniacki, Dinara Safina, Jelena Jankovic, Victoria Azarenka

Dinara-Safina-US-Open-rd-3-2009-woe_2356535Day two in Doha was an usual day of tennis, with the Williams sister match-up still to come. After 3 hours on court Caroline Wozniacki came from behind to save a match point and defeat Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 6-4, 7-5. It was an interesting affair between the two rookies, who are also good friends, as from the start it looked as though Azarenka would run away with the match. At 2-2 in the second set Azarenka served for 45 minutes and 12 deuces to finally take a 3-2 lead, but Wozniacki was not done. She came back to win the set, but trailed 4-2 and then 5-4 in the third. After winning the first set so easily and squandering her chances in the third, Azarenka lost her cool at that juncture. After falling behind on her serve at 5-5, 15-30, she smacked a ball out of the stadium, drawing a warning from the umpire. After losing the next point to go down 15-40 she smashed her racquet, bringing her a point penalty that gave Wozniacki the break and a 6-5 lead. Wozniacki calmly served it out, a service winner on match point sealing it.

If the drama of the first match was not enough, what followed was right out of left field. Dinara Safina was set to play her first match against Jelen Jankovic, a match Jankovic had to win to keep any hope alive. After the usual warm-up, the match began, nothing unusual happening. After just the second game Safina went to the sidelines in tears, and told the Tournament director that she could not continue. She cited a recurring lower back problem, and withdrew. Jankovic gets the win and Safina will be replced in the white group by Vera Zvonareva.

So now we have three players in the group with one win and one loss, and the #1 player is gone.

Now if Venus can defeat Serena later today there will be three players with one win each in the Maroon group.

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