Elena Dementieva and Marat Safin make winning starts

7 Aug, 2007 21:47 / Updated 17 years ago

Reigning champion Elena Dementieva has made a winning start to her defence of the Los Angeles Classic, and Marat Safin is through to second round in the Montreal Masters after his first round opponent, Robin Soderling, retired.

Dementieva is only ninth seed after having been out of form for several months. But she was a winner on this occasion, beating compatriot Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-1. Less success elsewhere though, as Anastasia Rodionova went out to Mara Santangelo.  In second round matches, Dinara Safina lost in straight sets to Ukraine's Katerina Bondarenko.  Maria Kirilenko is through to third round beating sixth seed Marion Bartoli.  Meanwhile, in Montreal Andy Murray has returned to tennis with a win. The Scotsman has been out for nearly three months with a wrist injury, but still managed to get the upper hand on Robby Ginepri.