SYDNEY, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Russians Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva won straight-set victories Monday in the first round of the Medibank International, a final Australian Open tune-up.
Safina, seeded second, had little trouble dispatching Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-1. Dementieva, the third seed who won at Auckland last week, eliminated fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 7-5, 6-1 on the hard courts at Sydney International Tennis Centre.