NEW YORK, USA - SIXTH seed Dinara Safina weathered a spirited challenge from Swiss teenager Timea Bacsinszky to win 3-6 7-5 6-2 in the third round of the US Open on Saturday.

Since May, the Russian has been the in-form player on the tour and has reached six finals in seven tournaments. But Bacsinszky, playing in the third round of a grand slam for the first time, came out fighting from the start.

She broke Safina's serve to take the first game and held her nerve to take the opening set.

Safina appeared to be getting back into the match with the first break in the second set but then made several errors to let Bacsinszky level at 3-3.

Despite continuing to produce a flurry of unforced errors, Safina broke back and then went on the offensive to take the set 7-5.

Safina clinched the third easily after Bacsinszky wilted under pressure and was unable to handle the Russian's heavy groundstrokes.