ESPN Tennis

NEW YORK -- Playing at the U.S. Open provides Dinara Safina the perfect opportunity to combine her on-court duties with one of her other great passions -- shopping.

"Staying in downtown Manhattan, you always have the shopping. If you make some cash, you can go and spend some," the Russian world No. 1 said before she kicked off her Flushing Meadows campaign.

On Tuesday, however, Safina realized she would have to make better use of her spare time in New York after she came close to becoming the first women's top seed to fall in the first round of the Open.

While most title contenders would be horrified at being pushed around by a lowly ranked tennis upstart, Safina hoped the experience would give her the inspiration to follow brother Marat Safin's victory path in 2000.

"My brother, when he won U.S. Open, he almost lost to [Sebastien] Grosjean [in the third round]. He won 7-6 in the fifth set," Safina said after her 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 win over 167th-ranked Australian wild card Olivia Rogowska. "He had another difficult match against [Gianluca] Pozzi. So I remember he said he was struggling from the first round, but he made it. So maybe I'm following his steps this time.

"I just made it through [today], and I'm happy. Now tomorrow is day off. I can come down, practice and look for the match after tomorrow," she said.

On paper, Safina had been expected to roll over 18-year-old Rogowska in straight sets but instead she got caught up in a battle of unforced errors.

Forty-eight flew off Safina's racket, but she wriggled herself out of trouble after Rogowska produced 65 errors from her end of the court.

Surviving the match, summed up by Safina as "a little bit ugly," has given her the belief that she could at last win a Grand Slam after three runner-up finishes in the last 15 months.

"In the French Open, I won all the matches [on the way to the final] 6-0, 6-1. Did it help? Not really," said the 23-year-old Russian, who was beaten by compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Paris final. "God knows how I pulled it out ... so hopefully from today on it's going to get better.

"Now that I'm No. 1, I want a Grand Slam. This is what is missing for me. I'm sure it will happen because I've been very close to winning. I've been in the three finals, so just one step. Sooner or later, I will have to make it.

"If it happens [in New York], definitely it will be the best day of my life because it will happen here where my brother won it."