Easy win for Safina in fourth round

Dinara Safina cofirm fourth round so easily.Safina defeat Kirsten Flipken .







World number one Dinara Safina sailed into the second week at Wimbledon for the first time on Sunday, defeating Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens 7-5 6-1.

The Russian, three times a grand slam runner-up but never a winner, had a fight on her hands in the opening set of the third round match but overwhelmed the world number 110 in the second.

With thunder rumbling overhead, Flipkens got her only set point at 5-4 in the first which she squandered. Safina finally broke in the 11th game and served out to take a 1-0 lead.

The Russian went into overdrive as the heavens threatened to open on the new number two show court but the rain just held off and she swept to an easy 6-1 second set clincher.

At her post-match news conference, Safina said it was "annoying" that people kept pointing out she was world number one without having won a grand slam.

"I'm consistently there," she said. "One day I will get the grand slam and nobody can talk anymore that I am number one without a grand slam," she said.

Safina next faces 17th seed and former champion Amelie Mauresmo for a place in the quarter-finals.
The Russian said of her French opponent: "This year she's playing very good. I think she's back in her best shape. She likes playing on grass."

Sharapova's road to recovery just beginning

WIMBLEDON, England - Deep down, Maria Sharapova believes that her money shots will return sometime soon, that she'll be able to impose herself again and rediscover the right kind of attack and consistency that once brought her to No. 1 in the world.
Wednesday at Wimbledon, Sharapova showed that she's still a long way from the form that made her one the world's most threatening players, even as recently as the start of 2008, when she could tear the cover off the ball and dominate her foes with blitzing serves, returns and groundstrokes.






"There's no real gray area today," said Sharapova, the 2004 champion here. "I had so many easy balls, and I just made unforced errors from those. I don't really know if that's because I haven't played. When I've had those situations before those balls would be pieces of cake, and today they weren't."

Like she did in Paris, Sharapova fought hard, but this time, after snarling back from a 6-3, 3-0 deficit and winning seven straight games, Sharapova lost her rhythm once again. The creative Dulko mixed up her shots, took pace off the ball, served intelligently and passed the tall Russian at the net again and again.