Safarova loses Paris Open final; Davis Cup team succumb to the US

Czech tennis player Lucie Safarova has lost to Nadia Petrova in the final of the Paris Open. The unseeded twenty-year-old, who reached the quarter finals of last month's Australian Open, lost to the Russian fourth seed in three sets - 6:4, 1:6, 6:4. Safarova's run to the final sees her rise to 26 in the world rankings, her highest-ever placing. Meanwhile the Czech Davis Cup team will have to go through a play-off to see if they remain in the World Group after losing their first-round Davis Cup match 3:1 to the United States

Author: Coilin O'Connor