Mon Sep 1 13:47:35 2008

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Surging Safina rolls into Open quarters

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Flushing Meadows, NY (Sports Network) - French Open and Olympic runner-up Dinara Safina was an easy fourth-round winner Monday at the 2008 U.S. Open.

The sixth-seeded Safina handled German Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5, 6-0 on Labor Day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Safina reached the finals in six of her previous seven tournaments, including three titles, heading to New York, where she was a quarterfinalist two years ago.

The 22-year-old Safina, the younger sister of men's two-time major champion Marat Safin, lost to current world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic in the French Open finale back in June and gave way to fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in last month's gold-medal match in Beijing.

Safina's quarterfinal opponent this week will either be 16th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta or 32nd-seeded Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, a former world No. 1 and two-time major titlist.