Safina sidesteps Serena, stakes claim to No. 1

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	Dinara Safina The week her top ranking was called into question, she backs it up, gracefully sidestepping controversy and then winning her first title of the year, the Internazionali BNL event in Rome. Her run includes a win over Venus Williams and a rout of Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. Good for her.


	Novak Djokovic Pushed to three sets several times, but prevails in inaugural Serbian Open, as expected.


	Albert Montanes Spaniard vet saves two match points to beat James Blake in the final and take the Estoril Open in Portugal.


	James Blake American ends his slump by reaching the Estoril final. Then squanders two match points and loses 6-0 in the third. No wonder he's a Mets fan.


	Yanina Wickmayer Belgian wins her first title, taking the Estoril event.


	Tomas Berdych Streaky Czech, suddenly heating up, beat Mike Youzhny in the Munich final.


	Lukasz Kubot Polish lucky loser (which is a great name for a band, come to think of it) makes it all the way to Serbian Open final.


	Sam Querrey Kicks off Madrid with a win over No. 15 seed Radek Stepanek (who beat Roger Federer on clay last year.) Overall, some encouraging clay results for Americans so far this spring.


	Doubles Winners Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears (props for NCAA tennis) in Estoril. Eric Butorac and Scott Lipsky (props to college tennis) in Estoril. Hsieh Su-Wei and Peng Shuhai in Rome. Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in Belgrade. Czech mates Jan Hernych and Ivo Minar (pictured) in Munich.


	Pasadena Star News The award for finest tennis headline goes to ... (Thanks to Mark Flannery of Fullerton, Calif., for the assist.)


	Lindsay Davenport Might there be a corporate promotion in her future? (Thanks to Kenneth Milstein of San Francisco for the assist.)


	Mothers As Ralph Kiner put it: Today's Mother's Day so a happy birthday to all you mothers.


	Tennis Twittering Click here to join the discussion.

Deuce



	Lagardere French media firm "acquires" Andy Roddick from Jonathan Blue's firm. Meanwhile, John Tobias, who once schooled Steve Nash in a college hoops game, is now the president of Blue tennis.

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	Ana Ivanovic Out of Madrid with a knee injury, hardly a strong omen for a French Open title defense.


	Alize Cornet The darling of the tour a year ago, the French teen is having trouble getting out of round one. Already out to a qualifier in Madrid.


	Serena Williams Declares herself the real No. 1 and loses her next match. Karma got game.


	Damir Dokic Jelena Dokic's father was arrested in Belgrade for making threats against the Australian ambassador. Do they still banish odious people to islands?


	Richard Gasquet Reportedly fails a drug test (cocaine) but claims he's innocent. Stay tuned on this one.