Safina survives Wimbledon scare

LONDON, June 29 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Dinara Safina rallied from tough deficits Monday for a three-set victory and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon Championships in London.

Safina dropped the first set and was down an early break in each of the other two sets before she fought back for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over 17th-seeded Amelie Mauresmo.

Safina didn't make things easy for herself, having more unforced errors than winners (33-31) and being backed into 11 break-point situations. However, she was able to defend seven of those, which kept her in the match.

In the quarterfinals she'll face unseeded Sabina Lisicki, who upset No. 9-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4 Monday. Lisicki defeated fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round.

The Williams sisters also advanced out of the fourth round. Second-seeded Serena Williams stopped Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-1 while No. 3-seeded Venus Williams moved on when Ana Ivanovic retired with a thigh injury. Venus Williams led 6-1, 0-1 at the time.

Fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva was also a straight-set winner, dispatching Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-3 and No. 8-seeded Victoria Azarenka topped 10th-seeded Nadia Petrova 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-3. In other fourth-round matches, unseeded Francesca Schiavone upset 26th-seeded Virginie Razzano 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) and 11th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska beat Melanie Oudin 6-4, 7-5.

In addition to the Safina-Lisicki match, the Wimbledon women's quarterfinals have Serena Williams playing Azarenka, Venus Williams going against Radwanska and Dementieva meeting Schiavone.