No. 1 Safina ousted in 2nd round at Rogers Cup

TORONTO — Dinara Safina is out of the Rogers Cup.

The No. 1-ranked Russian fell 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to Aravane Rezai of France in a second-round match Wednesday at the $2 million WTA Tour event.

Safina's loss comes one day after No. 3 seed Venus Williams was upset by Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko.

Safina opened strong, but fell apart in the second set with six double faults and winning fewer than half of her points on serve. Safina finished with 17 double faults.

The 23-year-old was broken three straight times in the third and deciding set, slamming her racket to the ground after the final point.

Safina fought her emotions while trying to explain how the match got away.

"It's my brain," said Safina, who lost an opening match for the first time since February. "I know exactly what I have to do, but if I'm not using my brain, I'm not doing the things my coach is telling me. ... (I'm) too disappointed with myself."

The tournament lost another high seed when No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki fell 7-5, 6-3 to China's Zheng Jie. Wozniacki was broken seven times in the match, and saved just one of four break points in the second set.

No. 12 Flavia Pennetta of Italy is also out after a 6-3, 6-1 loss to Virginie Razzano of France.

Seeded players to advance to round three Wednesday included: No. 4 Elena Dementieva of Russia, who cruised past Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-2; No. 5 Jelena Jankovic, a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Switzerland's Patty Schnyder; and No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, who downed Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-3.

Maria Sharapova, working her way back from a shoulder injury that sidelined her for nearly a year, also reached the third round with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Sybille Bammer of Austria. Sharapova wasn't at her best, but was good enough to reach the round of 16 in her first visit to Toronto since she was a teenager.

"I'm actually having a competition with myself to see how many errors and double-faults I can make and still win the match in two sets," Sharapova joked. "The fact that I served that way and still won the match in two sets is certainly going to give me a lot of confidence when my arm is where it needs to be and when my serve gets to where it has to be."

When asked what specifically had gone wrong with her serve, Safina had a long list.