It was a virtual repeat of yesterday's performance against the world's #1 player, Justine Henin.  But this time the #17 ranked Dinara Safina brought her game against a player who had been on a 16 match winning streak, the #6 ranked Serena Williams.  Again, the outcome was a stunner.  As she had against Henin, Safina had a losing record against Williams, a 3-0 head to head including a loss last year to Serena at the French Open.  But again, like yesterday, it was as though Dinara had shrugged her shoulders and said forget about the head to head: that's in the past; let's see what happens today!

Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, just like yesterday, Safina lost the first set to her opponent; in the early going it looked like an easy win for Serena.  But then the error gremlins raided the court.  Williams ended up with 7 double faults (Safina had 6); Serena got a mediocre 54% of her serves in (Dinara was slightly better at 60%); both players were broken four times but Serena had eight chances to Dinara's seven.

Now, it's time to play our favorite game: Why did Serena fail?  Only this time we must include Justine Henin into the post-match breakdown.  With no complaints of a physical nature coming from either Justine or Serena and with both of them winning the first set in their matches with Safina, one has to look elsewhere for an answer as to why they lost to a player who gave them no trouble in the past.  Could it be that they were both looking beyond Safina to the next match (it would have been a match with Serena for Justine, while Serena could have faced Azarenka).  In either case both the #1 and #6 players may have been a bit overconfident which may have led to a lack of focus and intensity:  Defeated by Safina?  Never!

Yes, today's match went to a third (!) set tie-breaker but honestly it never should have reached that point.  And by then the Russian bear that has emerged to possess Safina in her last two matches would not be denied.  Dinara is currently the most dangerous female tennis player in Berlin.  She's on fire and it is hard to see anyone who will put out the flames.  But always remember: tennis is an unpredictable game.  Head to head: Safina and Victoria Azarenka have never met on court.  Let's see what tomorrow brings.