American qualifier Bobby Reynolds became the latest player to frustrate former world number one Marat Safin with a 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 first-round win at the Sony Ericsson Open on Thursday. The 90th-ranked Safin, who saved two match points in the third set, is in a deep slide having won only one of six matches played this year. “I'm trying, and it doesn't come out my way. But (that) doesn't mean that I have to stop because I'm not winning matches. I enjoy what I'm doing,” twice grand slam champion Safin told reporters. “I have plenty of cash to do what I want to do, so what I want to do is play tennis.” American Mardy Fish, who stunned top-ranked Roger Federer in a straight-set victory in the Pacific Life Open last week, went down 6-3, 6-3 to Frenchman Arnaud Clement. Fish, who lost his serve in the eighth game of the first set and first and ninth games of the second set, was unable to take advantage of any of the four break point opportunities he had against the Frenchman. “Arnaud is obviously a tough player,” said Fish, a silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games. The 40th-ranked player said the loss to Clement, a French Open finalist in 2001, in no way took away from his only win over Federer in six career matches played. “It is pretty surreal in the beginning because it just felt like another match,” said Fish of that win. “It didn't really hit me, I think, until the next morning at 4 in the morning. I kind of woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.” Safin's only victory this season came over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the first round of the Australian Open. The 104th-ranked Reynolds is the lowest ranked player Safin has lost to this year. Safin's other defeats were against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the second round of the Australian Open, and first-round losses to Thomas Johansson of Sweden in Memphis, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in Las Vegas, and Jurgen Melzer of Austria in Indian Wells. A left knee injury that surfaced three years ago has forced Safin to restyle his game. Austrian Jurgen Melzer defeated Michael Llodra of France 7-6, 7-6 and Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia beat Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Gulbis defeated Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, who is on the comeback trail after right elbow surgery, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama defeated Russian wild card Anastasia Pivovarova, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2). Sugiyama, 32, is making her 14th appearance here, while 17-year-old Pivovarova was playing her second career WTA event. France's Emilie Loit defeated Virginia Ruano Pascual, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, to set up a clash with second-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia - the newly crowned Indian Wells champion. France's Gael Monfils beat American John Isner 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 to set up a second-round meeting with world number one Federer.Henin honored Belgian world number one Justine Henin reaped yet another reward for her outstanding 2007 season on Thursday as she was named the WTA player of the year. Henin, who also earned the honor in 2003, won 10 of the 14 tournaments that she started last year. She was unbeaten in 25 straight matches after falling to France's Marion Bartoli in the semifinals at Wimbledon. Despite that All-England disappointment, Henin took her total of Grand Slam singles titles to seven in 2007, with victories at Roland Garros and the US Open. She became the first woman in history to earn more than five million dollars in prize money in one year. Serbian Ana Ivanovic, who won the prestigious WTA tier one title at Indian Wells on Sunday, was named the most-improved player. American Lindsay Davenport was named comeback player of the year, after returning to the courts in September three months after the birth of her first child, son Jagger. Hungarian Agnes Szavay, 19, won the best newcomer award after capturing her first two career titles at Palermo and Beijing. She jumped from 185th place in the world rankings to 20th. __
