No. 7 seed Dinara Safina defeats Dominika Cibulkova at Rogers Cup
Stephanie Myles, The Gazette
Published: Sunday, August 03
MONTREAL – A succession of upsets during the earlier rounds of a tournament often doesn’t make for a great final.
And that was the case today at the Rogers Cup, where Dinara Safina, the No. 7 seed but the top player on current form in the event, had little trouble disposing of the upset queen, Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 6-1.
“I was just playing whatever I was feeling, so I guess it was the right tactic today,” said Safina, who was quite emotional, and whose voice was shaking as she was interviewed on court.
Cibulkova had beaten four seeds in this event – No. 5 Elena Dementieva, No. 12 Nadia Petrova, No. 2 Jelena Jankovic, and No. 10 Marion Bartoli – in a hard-fought comeback win late Saturday night, one punctured by rain delays.
As it was, Cibulkova had already spoken of being satisfied with her tournament, even as she took the court against Bartoli in the semi-finals Saturday night, before her coach talked to her during the rain stoppage and urged her to set her sights higher than just the quarter-finals.
She vowed it wouldn’t happen during the final. And it didn’t, really. It was just that Safina had too much for her. It took an hour and six minutes for Safina to win her second tournament in two weeks. A second-serve ace punctured match point.
The match got underway nearly on time, less than 10 minutes behind schedule, a miracle given that there was rain all around the area – including downtown – during the match that was played not far north, at the Jarry Park Tennis Centre.
Cibulkova had a few chances with break points on Safina’s serve. But Safina nearly always found a way to overcome them. And she had her way with Cibulkova’s serve.
The consistency Cibulkova had shown throughout the tournament was not apparent today.
© The Gazette 2008
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