Dinara Safina stormed into the French Open quarterfinals without even sweating after another ruthless win over Aravane Rezai of France on Sunday.
The top seed only spent 53 minutes to wrap up a 6-1, 6-0 victory at the Philippe Chatrier court. She has lost only five games through four rounds of the clay-court major, with four of the eight sets she has played being won at love.
"It's great," said the Russian, "I'm just surprised that it's really like five games that I lost before getting into the quarters."
"It's not a bad feeling, and I hope if I continue like this I can go a long way." she added.
Rezai, playing in the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for just the second time, was totally helpless with her opponent's powerful serves and ground strokes despite a break point in the third game.
While "efficient" would be the word for Safina's no-waste style of play, the 23-year-old insisted that she should not allow free points to opponents.
"I'm trying to be very professional. I don't waste my energy." she said.
"Now I have a match, I try to focus and every point is important. No free points. No stupid mistakes. Just point by point I'm playing."
The current world number one has won 18 matches out of 19 she played on clay this season.
(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2009)