World number one tennis player Dinara Safina won her first title of the 2009 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour season on Saturday.
Safina, the top seed at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, defeated her countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsova in the singles final 6-3, 6-2.
“I think yesterday’s match against Venus really helped me to push myself to play my best,” said Safina after the match.
“Really, really I think I played one of my best matches yesterday. And against Kuzy, I had in my head that I had lost three finals this year. I didn’t want to have a reputation that I’m losing finals.”
Today’s final in Italy was a rematch of last week’s championship match at Stuttgart’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. In Germany, Kuznetsova took the trophy in straight sets.
