Safina edges through after scare

STUTTGART, Oct 3 (Reuters) Dinara Safina today celebrated her rise into the world's top 10 by saving three match points in a 6-1 5-7 7-6 victory over Italy's Mara Santangelo at the Stuttgart Grand Prix on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Russian, sister of former world number one Marat Safin and a quarter-finalist at the French and US Opens, was making her first appearance as a top 10 player after victories this year over Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Safina's strong forehand and potent serve gave her an early advantage, and after firing three aces in the first game she coasted through the opening set.

But Safina failed to maintain her momentum at the beginning of the second and surrendered the first three games before levelling at 3-3.

Santangelo then requested an injury time-out when leading 6-5, and after treatment to her left wrist broke a second time to level the match.

In the deciding set, Safina was broken to love when serving for victory at 5-4 and the sixth seed fought off three match points before edging the tiebreak 11-9.

Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik defeated Nathalie Dechy of France 6-1 6-4 to set up a meeting with third seed Elena Dementieva, and Germany's Martina Muller will play second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova after beating Czech Kveta Peschke 6-0 7-6.

Anna-Lena Groenefeld earned a clash with fourth seeded Nadia Petrova by emerging from a fluctuating all-German clash against wildcard Tatjana Malek with a 6-3 2-6 6-0 win.

In other first round matches, Tatiana Golovin of France lost the opening three games against experienced Russian Elena Likhovtseva but recovered to win 4-6 6-0 6-3. Shahar Peer of Israel overcame Russia's Ekaterina Bychkova 6-3 6-3.

Reuters SBA VP0310