Dinara Safina upset by Chang Kai-chen at Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo

Dinara Safina upset by Chang Kai-chen at Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo

Dinara Safina was upset by qualifier Chang Kai-chen 76 46 75 in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo where she was the defending champion.

Chang put Safina on the defensive from the outset, breaking the Russian twice to go up 3-0 in the first set. Safina rallied to take a 6-5 lead but Chang forced and then won the tiebreaker.

Dinara rallied to take the second with a thumping backhand, pumping her fist and screeching “Come on!” But after seizing an early break in the deciding set, Safina’s nervousness resurfaced as she tamely surrendered her serve with a double-fault at 5-4 up.

Safina was serving for the match in the third set when she double-faulted to give up a break. Chang held her own serve and then broke Safina again to claim the win.

“The double fault didn’t affect me that much,” Safina said. “Whether it’s a double fault or a mistake it’s the same. It’s just the way I played at 5-4. It wasn’t the right game, I didn’t use my first serve the whole game.”

“This is not an easy moment but that’s sport,” Safina said. “I didn’t play good in the match today. I had a lot chances in the third set and just let it go.”

This was a great win for Chang, who is ranked 132th in the WTA ranking.

“On match point, I was just thinking the same thing as always,” Chang said. “I wasn’t thinking ‘Oh, I have match point, I’m going to win.”‘

Chang said the first thing that came to mind after her huge win was her parents.

“My mother doesn’t get out to watch a lot of matches but she follows the live scoring and I was thinking about what she thought when she saw today’s score,” Chang said.