Aggressive approach pays off for Dinara Safina

Reporting from Carlsbad — Dinara Safina attacked any short balls that came off the racket of Alona Bondarenko. Any Bondarenko shot that landed in the middle of the court, Safina pounced on it, grunting loudly with the effort of pummeling the return, sweating through towel after towel even in the cool evening.

Safina is a work in progress this summer. A year ago she was ranked No. 1 in the world and defending that position to the critics who pointed out that she hadn’t won a major tournament, that whenever she played then second-ranked Serena Williams, she would get pounded.

The 24-year-old Russian beat Bondarenko, 6-1, 7-6 (2), Monday night in the first round of the Mercury Insurance Open at La Costa and she was playing on the first night of the tournament because Safina is unseeded and ranked 35th.

Safina didn’t play Wimbledon because of a back and hip injury and her win Monday night was her first since April and only her second since January’s Australian Open. She had been a first-round loser in five straight tournaments until Monday and her assessment of the evening was succinct.

“Right now I’m pleased that I won,” she said. “That’s the most important thing. I needed the win.”

Against Bondarenko, ranked 30th, Safina played a first set full of confidence and fist pumps and a second set with determination.

When Safina got her serve broken in the fourth game of the final set to trail, 3-1, she pumped her fist and immediately returned the favor by getting the break back with a loudly hit forehand winner that caused the crowd to gasp.

She said she began the second-set tiebreak with the idea of being aggressive.

“I played a tiebreak last week and lost,” Safina said. “In practice I played a tiebreak and lost. Every time I play the tiebreak I play defensive. Tonight I said it was OK to not be defensive, to be aggressive and whatever happens happens. I was maybe a little bit tight on match point.”

On her first match point, Safina served a double fault. On the second, she hit a forehand return wide but on the third Safina cracked a winner and pumped her fist.

Also winning first-round matches were Russian Alisa Kleybanova, who beat Aravane Rezai of France, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, and Italy’s Sara Errani, who knocked out Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5. Kleybanova’s second-round opponent will be the tournament’s top-seeded Jelena Jankovic.

But Safina was the biggest name on the schedule and for that she feels lucky. Safina said that when her back began aching earlier in the year she didn’t take enough time off. After trying to play the clay-court season Safina said she spent a week last month where she couldn’t walk.

She went to Argentina to do rehabilitation on her injury and to work with a new coach, Gaston Etlis, who played on the ATP Tour.

When Safina ended the first set by knocking out a 100-mph ace, she was joyous.

“Thanks, God, I wake up now and I feel good. It’s not a nice feeling to have that pain. Now it’s good to have confidence,” she said.

diane.pucin@latimes.com