Safina gets an apology from U.S. Open

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United States Tennis Assn. spokesman Chris Widmaier said the organization should have communicated more quickly with Dinara Safina on Saturday night. ‘We owe her an apology,’ Widmaier said Sunday.

Because of a late-running day session Saturday, top-seeded Safina’s third-round match against Petra Kvitova was moved off Arthur Ashe Stadium to the Louis Armstrong court so that the second scheduled night match between American James Blake and Spaniard Tommy Robredo could go on Ashe. About 2 a.m. Sunday morning, after Safina had lost in three sets, the world’s top-ranked player expressed her displeasure in how and why her match was moved.

Sunday Stacey Allaster, chief executive of the Sony Ericcson WTA Tour, issued a statement in support of Safina’s complaint.

‘While the Tour understands and agrees with the rationale, from both a player and fan perspective, behind the decision to move one of the night session matches to Armstrong, we do believe that the late notification to our players was unfortunate and could have been avoided. It is our understanding that going forward the USTA plans addressing this issue such that it doesn’t occur again.’

Widmaier said that though the players have no choice, he said he didn’t dispute what Safina said, that she wasn’t notified of the move until 9:10 p.m. ‘We should have informed her earlier,’ Widmaier said.

-- Diane Pucin