At the Sony Ericsson competition this weekend in Miami, Eastern Europe had a bad time. Safina, Ivanovic, and Zvonareva all lost matches in the 3rd round and are out. All three of these women were in the top 10 seeds, but were just unable to outplay the other competitors. It’s kind of unfortunate for them because they have been able to win matches a lot more lately. The Eastern Europeans have become very dominant on the women’s side, mainly because it’s now a generation that was born or trained after the fall of the Eastern Bloc and now they have the ability and resources to really be properly trained for international competition. Next time around they will probably be able to battle it out after resting for the rest of the time in Miami.

The Russian tennis sensation Dinara Safina made a tremendous comeback from a set and 2-5 down to dethrone the number one seed player Maria Sharapova in a thrilling fourth round battle last Monday. The 13 seeded Russian entered into the last eight of the French Open virtue of a 6-7(6), 7-6(5), 6-2 epic fourth round match. This is Safina’s third win over Sharapova in six career meetings and was really pleased to have uprooted her fellow country woman. Safina’s fans will be by now heading to the ticket counters to book tickets to watch her performance in the quarter finals. Dinara Safina showed that she was far more superior on clay with a game full of control and aggression.