Tennis - US Open: Dinara Safina barely resembled a player rated as the best in women's tennis as she stuttered and stumbled her way into the US Open second round with a 6-7 6-2 6-4 win over little-known Australian Olivia Rogowska.
The Russian was in danger of suffering the humiliation of becoming the first women's top seed to perish in the first round of the Open as she littered the Arthur Ashe Stadium with a heap of unforced errors.
Trailing 3-0 in the deciding set, Safina's appearance in New York looked set to be a fleeting one but she managed to save face by subduing the plucky challenge of the 167th-ranked Rogowska after two hours 35 minutes of see-saw action.
"I didn't break any rackets and I didn't get a warning so that's already a positive," a hugely relieved Safina, whose emotions often boil over on court, told the crowd after staging her great escape.
A bludgeoning forehand from Safina ended Rogowska's debut appearance at Flushing Meadows and the 23-year-old Russian will be looking for a vast improvement in form when she takes on either Urszula Radwanska of Poland or Germany's Kristina Barrois in the next round.
Former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova had earlier cruised to a 6-3 6-2 victory over Julia Goerges of Germany in the first round . The sixth seed came from a break down in the first set to claim a comfortable win over the world number 92.
Goerges has won just one grand slam match but a shock looked possible when she won three successive games to lead by a break at 3-2.
But the Russian, who won her second grand slam crown at the French Open in June, lifted her game to win eight straight games on her way to clinching a second-round meeting with Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand or Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.