The Safin Side?

It looks my Dinara Safina tip might be... well, wrong. Maybe she's trying to make Marat feel better by losing a bit? I would like to think it's that, rather than the Safin side coming out. That said, she has been beaten by the Williams sisters - this is hardly a Julie Coin incident. She can still make it out of round robin, but Serena will have to lose her next two matches and Dinara will have to beat Dementieva for this to happen. Venus looks pretty certain of going through with her two wins - and I thought she might be the weak link in this group. Guess you can never call anyone weak at this level.

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Someone else who looks pretty certain of going through is Vera Zvonareva - who would have guessed? She's easily the lowest profile of the eight, but she's had good wins over both Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic now. I can't see her beating Jelena, but it's looking like Jelena and Vera will go through. It is early days yet, but that is my bold prediction.

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Meanwhile, the groups have just been announced for the Shanghai Masters Cup, and I have to say, once more, one group is harder than the other. I actually did a bit of a double take when I looked at it and was all like, 'what? How can Federer and Murray be in the same group?' then I realised that Murray is in fact the third seed. If it were based on recent performance, Murray would definitely be seeded higher than Djokovic. Other members of the red group are Andy Roddick and Gilles Simon, and in the gold group we have Novak Djokovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin del Potro and Nikolay Davydenko.

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I don't think it's difficult to predict that Federer and Murray will be the players that go through from the red group - I don't know how many people would bet against them! In the gold group, the seeds are Djokovic and Davydenko, but I'm going to be bold and say that Tsonga and del Potro will go through. They are just so much hotter right now, when it comes down to it.

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And to conclude, can I just say how jealous I am of Roger Federer's new real estate acquisition? He just bought a ski chalet in Valbella near St Moritz. Why can't I have a ski chalet?

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Today's Results

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Sony Ericsson Championships 2008 (Doha)

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White Group

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Vera Zvonareva def. Ana Ivanovic, 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-4

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Maroon Group

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Venus Williams def. Elena Dementieva, 6-4 4-6 6-3

Serena Williams def. Dinara Safina, 6-4 6-1