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Confident start for Dementieva

Monday 25 February 2008 21:51, UK

Image: Dementieva: Into round two

Elena Dementieva scored a straight-sets 7-5 6-0 win over Patty Schnyder in the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships.

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Top four seeds have first-round byes

Elena Dementieva has made a confident start to the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships by taking a straight-sets 7-5 6-0 win over Patty Schnyder on Monday. The eighth-seeded Russian, who won WTA Tour singles titles in Istanbul and Moscow last season, proved too strong for her Swiss opponent in their first-round match. Another Russian, Dinara Safina, also made the second round in style after claiming a 6-1 6-3 victory over Tunisia's Selima Sfar. However, Alona Bondarenko found the going tougher in her own first-round clash, the Ukrainian eventually claiming a 3-6 6-3 6-2 success against Maria Kirilenko. World number one Justine Henin, who has won four of the past five titles in the Middle East, is one of four players who receive first-round byes. Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova and Serbian duo Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic are the other seeds in the top four.

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